Disasters must not be windfalls for the greedy

POLICE IN SUIDE COUNTY in Northwest China's Shaanxi province have banned locals from collecting unattended goods after torrential rain caused flooding over the past few days. Beijing News commented on Thursday:

That the local government allocated 250 million yuan ($37 million) for flood control and rescue work and launched a Level 2 emergency response, to some extent, indicates the floods came faster than expected.

It is a shame that some Suide residents chose to take advantage of that and the evacuation of 20,000 people, including many shop owners, to loot the flooded stores.