Rich vs Poor?

While on the topic of California and some things Californian I thought I'd pen some stuff I was meaning to for a long time.

There was this huge wildfire in SoCal sometime back. Huge areas burnt out. It was a disaster. A national disaster. So we were watching television and one of the news channels was interviewing some people who had to take public shelter and wait it out till the fire was finished. A question came up about rescue operations and how the people felt about it. The response was one that I totally didn't expect. Way back when Katrina happened, we were so used to hearing people complain. Aid didn't reach them. Even when it did, it was so inadequate. People were left out to fend for themselves etc etc etc. Major taunt throwing at Bush and so on and so forth. But with Californians, the answer was a very surprising "We were very well taken care of. Blankets, food and water and all other such necessities arrived in a very timely manner. We are really thankful to everyone" and so on. Boy, was I expecting something completely different or what. I guess when you are the richest economy in the United States, it does make a difference eh?

BTW, did you know that California is the eighth largest economy in the world? Wow! (Yeah, curious me, just had to look in Wikipedia after I saw this interview to see just how rich California was;) ) Well well, I am turning into one of those proud Californians I used to love to hate ;)