I’ve written on various occasions about disaster capitalism – how neoliberals exploit (and even create or simulate) disasters in order to dismantle social provisions and replace them with private, profit-making structures. See http://skwawkbox.org/2012/08/17/o-canada-when-right-wing-crisis-engineering-came-out-of-the-closet/ http://skwawkbox.org/2012/08/13/doomed-to-repeat-it-what-happens-to-countries-when-neoliberals-exploit-crisis/ and http://skwawkbox.org/2012/08/27/proven-imf-brings-down-economies-intentionally/ as examples where it’s proven and documented.

This excellent article by @syzygysyzygysue (Twitter ID) touches on the same practice and its likely consequences for the US north-east after Hurricane Sandy. Please take a look.