are back. they seem still in shock as they start to pick through their homes. describe how you feel about what this has done to your home, your town. >> translator: surprised because this was the first time during my 75 years life. and i was really upset and i was really scared. >> reporter: but in some cases, people exhibit almost unfathomable behavior. combing through homes that aren't there, doing menial tasks, seemingly just to maintain their sanity. in the midst of this carnage, what good could it do to shovel small clumps of debris from one side of a walk way to the other? just a few feet away, one visitor isn't surprised. an emergency medicine specialist with the l.a. search and rescue team has seen these patterns in haiti and after the tsunami in