Responses to Disasters/Life isn't nasty mean brutish and short

A researcher named Fischer discovered that the public and emergency services spend too much effort on preventing certain kinds of aftermaths to disasters that rarely happen--with the result that resources are not directed where they are needed most. I found out a lot about this before Hurricane Katrina and even before the northeastern power blackout. Fischer's research led me to expect that the media plays up panic and gouging and looting. When I heard about Katrina victims shooting at the rescue aircraft, I thought of Fischer and concluded that such guilty victims were mere rumors. But the reportage got worse and worse, and I started to doubt Fischer's research. Turned out much later, I was right in the first place, and so was Fischer. No aircraft reported being shot at. No babies were raped in the sports stadium. No confirmed murders at the sports stadium.

But the heavy reporting of false rumors of shooting at rescuers understandably frightened some rescue workers away.

Unfortunately, Fischer's book is too expensive for me, and the local libraries don't have it, but I pieced parts of his results together by reading reviews and excerpts. Here's one part of his research.

Fischer presentation on disaster myths

I'm interested in implications of Fischer's research for decentralized governance and self governance. Does it mean anything?

David Oakey