I'm not sure I'd call it looting. It's surviving. Cause in such a situation as that, what's left is pretty much going to be trashed anyway. It's a disaster zone and every man, woman, child for themself. In that type of situation, they use what is available to survive.
For survival and there is no other way , I'd do it with a guilty conscience but I would send restitution later. I'd never take from someone who had less then me and certainly would try to help as much as possible.
Knowing that potential disaster was inbound, I'd hope that I've have the sense to stock up on supplies beforehand. But assuming that everything I had was destroyed/lost/unusable, then yes, I'd certainly scavenge whatever I could find to help my children survive. I'd do my best to repay it afterwards, but at the time, yes--I'd do whatever was neessary, including kill someone who threatened my family.
