I apologize, my reference to Hurricane Katrina was not clear. My husband (a general contractor) and 6 of my young adult and adult kids volunteered in Biloxi, MS for three months following Katrina. My husband ended up very involved with local politicians and the planning department in helping plan the removal of destroyed homes and the rebuilding of a large Buddhist Temple.
In his work, my husband had continual contact with the local police and volunteer LE sent in from around the country. After we went down (just as a family response), the Burners Without Borders (affiliated with Burning Man) group quickly joined us and the project took on a life of its own. There's even a video of their work, "Burn on the Bayou".
It quickly became clear that registered sex offenders plus many other criminals were taking advantage of the disaster. The RSOs were relocating or fleeing with children they were prohibited from living with and absconding from supervision. There were numerous reports that known sex offenders were sighted talking to children.
A couple even showed up on the Temple grounds. You can imagine that my husband was "on" this right away!! One man actually offended three young women (including my 22 year old daughter!!) during the night on the Temple grounds. He was well known by LE and was determined to be mentally ill. He was off his meds and was grabbing and fondling Americorps workers (and our girl) in their tents at night. My husband was notified by concerned citizens and monks who knew of the men's status and the creep was quickly carted off.
We also heard that the New Orleans area suffered the same calamity with offenses even being reported in the shelters. I found this one link but am certain that there are more out there:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,180226,00.html
There was also a very real concern that some of the rescue personnel and volunteers who rushed to the area misused their position of trust to offend. Being that the infrastructure in some areas was literally destroyed and there was so much chaos, it was impossible to tell who the good guys were from the bad. My husband quickly learned to listen to the word on the street and act quickly.
It got to be so problematic at the Temple, along with thievery, that the Temple elders and my husband arranged for security at night and set up locked gates. It's almost unbelievable but there were horrible stories at the time. If I find any more links I will post them. However, if you "read between the lines" of the article above, I think you can see the scope of the problem. The simple fact of 2,000 sex offenders going unaccounted for paints an ugly picture.