Well, my opinion is that whenever there are people suffering of, for instance, poverty, society and government (local or not) have the responsibility to try to help those people.
I don't think that poor people have themselves to blame - ever.
It's our responsibility as humans to try to help those who have less than we do, unless we suffer ourselves, which is of course something we have to decide for ourselves.

In this particular instance, I agree that there would've been casualities anyway but that the local authorities and perhaps the federal aswell (since I don't know exactly who has the responsibility) haven't done what they could have.
In my favourite world (perhaps a non existant one), those who couldn't leave, would have gotten help from the authorities.
I guess I should be more cynical...