Yes, that's life. People get up and move on. I think that it speaks of how comfortable America has been that this in itself is almost unthinkable. If Europe had sat down and waited to be rebuilt after WW2 we'd still be sitting! Yes, things are never going to be the same again, lives do get uprooted by natural disasters (ask the Tsunami victims - those that survived, that is).

Part of being an adult is taking responsibility for one's own life. By the sound of it that's something that the people being evicted have never bothered to learn.