That's my point--because they cut themselves off from the rest of the country electrically, it doesn't matter what their status is: when that underfunded and unsupported network fails, people will die. It happens every time.

And, would disaster relief be much different? Maybe the asking as a sovereign nation would take longer and have to be approved by Congress (?), but I've never heard of a state or nation every paying back US aid. If this has happened, please educate me. Seriously.