I haven't heard about this 900 rescure workers housed at Bethel story, but it's not impossible. In years past, when firefighters were putting out a fire at Bethel, they totally opened up other buildings to them and fed them and gave them anything they needed. Now in this case, Brooklyn is across the bridge and all, but I suppose it's close enough that maybe the out-of-town firefighters might have asked for help.
We tend to criticize the WTS no matter what. You know how we ridicule them for saying "If things are good, it means the end is near, and if things are bad, it means the end is near"? We tend to be guilty of the same thing here. No matter what they do, they are guilty, huh?
Well, their initial reaction was bad, and represents their true heart inclination -- take care of themselves, and ignore everyone else. Their PR stuff was gag-inducing. And individual JWs who minimized this disaster are disgusting, as are the GB for what they told the Bethel family, as are the GreatCrowd.com folks who made their awful comments.
On the other hand, this past Sunday I heard that Bethel had a few specially picked elders go to various bereavement locations (such as the armory) to be available to give a comforting message solely from the Bible, no literature, no selling, just comforting words. You can get all cynical about what their true message is behind the scenes, but the fact is that this is precisely the sort of preaching you would want them to do. I commend them for this. When they do right, I say call it right.
If they opened up Bethel for firefighters, then I commend them for that as well. Maybe they only did it after the initial criticisms about doing nothing, but one way or another they did it. Let's be fair.