The sad thing is the national government rarely does anything preemptively. They should've prepared for this days before the hurricane hit.
I'm not worried about the looting. If those people are stealing just material things, they're gonna die soon w/o food and water. And even deciding to wade through diseased water is stupid because of greed is dangerous.
Again, you have to wonder why these people didn't evacuate? A false alarm anyone can live with. That lasts only a few hours. Death on the other hand is forever.