JM:
I did not ignore your quotes. And yes, it’s Korach perek Tes Zayin pasuk Chaf Vav, on those words I quoted above, both oy laRasha and kivan sheNitan. I could not find it online for you, though I tried.
Unless you maintain that every single Jewish victim of Sandy is on the level of Amram and others who never ever sinned, there is nothing you have brought that indicate Kivan sheNitan cannot apply to Sandy. On the other hand, there is plenty out there to indicate that kivan sheNitan does apply to Sandy because of kevan sheNitan.
But, again, as I already stated, it doesn’t matter what the reason is but rather that kivan sheNitan is a real (if, obviously, limited) undeniable phenoemenon as Chazal in BK wrote and as expounded by others afterwards (very obviously not including myself as part of Chazal as you mentioned).
So even according to the Emek Davar you quoted, Kivan sheNitan can still apply to Sandy. And even if you also want to say it can only be Jew-to-Jew, which is your own assertion, there were, unfortunately, Jews who helped pass this abominable law. So this (part of the) destruction could have possibly been characterized as Jew-to-Jew, too.
The bottom line is that Chazal gave us a yesod and instead of trying to make it inapplicable because you want to learn mussar from it, perhaps consider that it certainly could be applicable to Toeva and Sandy even with all your quotes.