My lack of involvement does me well, small scale I give first aid, when Katrina hit I was one of the last out, and it was bumper to bumper for eighty miles. I was days gone and safe when the city flooded, and was locked out for six weeks.
It did cause me to get my survival kit together.
Haiti is the worst, no warning, the world ended in a minute. Dead and wounded everywhere, nothing to do but comfort the living and the dying.
Most of the wounded will die in a few days. If it was LA, most would die in a few days. There is no way to treat 250,000. The rest are in shock, and they will stay in familier places. Moving takes water, so if they marched off down the road or beach, they would be dying of thirst in a day or two, where just sitting they will last a week without water.
I would be a head looter from day one. Treat the lightly wounded, and put together an armed band for looting. It will get worse, the strong survive. Leave the weak to care for the wounded, take the strong out for supplies.
A little medical care, clean and bandage minor wounds, a little food and water, and a week later when others are dying, you will be strong in the second week when help might come. Rest, shade, shelter, recover. If no help is coming, you must find water. Boil it.
Humans can survive months with water, and cover ten miles a day or more. Move in the gullies, no one lives there, don't be seen, don't make noise. Don't get tired, move, rest, move at dawn and late in the day. Conserve energy, water, food. Keep moving, distance from the disaster is best.
In Haiti, digging out the dead, or the wounded, taking them to the hospital, most died. Field hospitals could have come quicker, but they would be filled with people who would die anyway. A week later they are gone, and the injured who survive might live with treatment. There are still a quarter million who need medical care. Maybe half of them will die. Using resources on them only slows their dying, and takes from those who might survive.
Of the three million made homeless, perhaps a million will die. All effort has to go to the survivors. If they go into the countryside, famine will spread. Over 4,000 were in prison, and the police are just shooting them now. They will not be coming into the camps and giving their name. No other city wants them. Port Au Prince is known for gangs.
Altogether it would be the same in Southern California, only they have more people and guns. The big quake is coming. The same for New Madrid.
Ask not for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for the.