The antithesis of the panic myth was seen with Orson Welles ’ The War of the Worlds radio broadcast in 1938 , the 1942 Cocoanut Grove nightclub fire , and as Hurricane Carla approached the Gulf Coast areas of Texas and Louisiana in 1961 . Rational behavior also dominated after earthquakes in Europe , North and South America , and Asia . Despite many reports of widespread panic , evidence later proved otherwise . The myth of panic affecting the official warnings of authorities has been seen in Mexico when the Rio Grande River flooded , in Italy during the flooding of the city of Florence , and after a volcanic eruption in Japan . In the instances when authorities chose to send the military instead of humanitarian organizations in response to Hurricane Katrina , it was in some part to help manage and control the perceived panic among the population
1942 Cocoanut Grove nightclub fire
Cocoanut Grove fire
Human response to disasters