Heroic rescues, food-stamp fraud, heartwarming acts of charity, price gouging a major natural disaster like last month's Los Angeles earthquake can bring out the best as well as the worst in victims. A compendium of bad postcalamity behavior:
LOS ANGELES EARTHQUAKE
Over 50,000 survivors have applied for food stamps, and rampant cheating is suspected. Relief workers have imposed a 72-hour waiting period to cross-check names and addresses. Complaints are also rising about landlords who refuse to refund rents and security deposits on condemned apartments.
SUMMER '93 MIDWEST FLOODS
Out of 7,349 Kansas City, Missouri, households receiving food stamps, one- third were...
