A sad, sad, day (or week)

The Southeastern US coast has been decimated by hurricane Katrina. People are left without homes, food, water, and some of their family and friends. What do you suppose the best course of action would be to assist this situation? I know. Let's steal things that have no influence on our survival, shoot at rescue workers, rob our neighbors' homes (while they're still in them), kill, destroy, start fires, rape, and otherwise cause as much trouble for everyone else, as we can.
New Orleans is a big city. This is not a handful of people doing this. A handful of people couldn't make much of a dent, and they would be put down by now. How did we come so far from human decency? When did we decide that man is about survival of the fittest, instead of helping our neighbor? When did we shirk our progress as humans, and regress to animal nature? I'll admit it, I'm befuddled. What do we hope to achieve by attacking each other in our time of need? These thugs can not be what America is becoming. If I am wrong, God help us. If I am wrong, we'll need a lot more than hope to survive much longer. New Orleans will be in my thoughts and prayers. May they overcome this terrible, terrible, tragedy and pull out of this, together.