Anger and natural disasters

Anger is one of the stages of grief. Loss of life, property or personal effects prompts anger as a response. Most recently, anger leveled at government entities is being amplified in news coverage of natural disasters. People are mad and the government is to blame, as if the government perpetrated the misery and loss that has come upon them.

 There was anger against FEMA in Western North Carolina. Mistrust and misinformation slowed help to a people hurting from destruction never before experienced in the North Carolina mountains.

 There was anger in the response to the last few hurricanes to pommel the North Carolina coast. Never mind that building on fragile coastlines is risky. Even Jesus admonished people who built houses on the sand. Woe unto us.

 Interesting that now, in the wake of destruction in California’s fires, people in other disaster areas are angry, thinking that they are being forgotten and help is not coming to them soon enough.

 Anger and blame are justified in some instances. There are human errors in calculating responses. There are failures to prepare adequately. It is also true that some natural disasters overwhelm even the most prepared and disaster-ready response teams, even in big cities like Los Angeles. The capricious nature of the Santa Ana winds is hard to predict, not unlike plotting the path of a hurricane.

 It’s easy to play a blame game when we are hurting. But blame does little good; scapegoating is not helpful. Victims always seek someone to blame. Assigning blame gives us an answer, even if it is the wrong one.

 When we look at the situations of increasing intensity, growing frequency, and overwhelming nature of disasters that wipe away towns and highways, we might need to ask, what is causing these devastating hurricanes, fires, floods, and winds? It has nothing to do with politics. A lot has to do with climate change that is still being denied by many. Many of us hope it is not too late to address the changes that are exacerbating disaster at many levels.

 Any hope of increased care of creation will evaporate as Energy Secretary Chris Wright, CEO of Liberty Energy that works in the fossil fuel arena, takes office. He is a climate denier and does not think climate influences natural disasters. He is an “unapologetic champion of unleashing fossil fuel output in the United States.”

 Heading the EPA will be Lee Zeldin, whose hope is to restore US energy dominance in the world and revitalize the automobile industry. Apparently, the hopes of green energy have faded and “Drill, Baby, Drill” is the new goal. Executive orders signed in the first day of the new presidency have opened new drilling fields and dropped us out of the Paris Climate Accord.

 New York Times opinion writers and CNN’s Michael Smerconish are in one accord, suggesting that it will be the insurance industry not Congress or government leaders, who will be first in address the changing climate. They will simply stop insuring homes and businesses in wildfire zones, flood prone areas, and hurricane rich environments. Only the very wealthy will risk building and owning property that is uninsured. This may curtail construction in some places. It is uncertain how it will impact disasters in places that are not identified as hurricane and flood prone, like Western North Carolina.

 At this time, those impacted by natural disaster pray for government and private help in restoring their lives and homes. It is ludicrous to hear politicians put loyalty conditions on who will get help and who won’t. Conditional help is not real help. It is a sick way of punishing people who have just been through the most devastating experience of their lives.

 Rethinking building codes, exit strategies and infrastructure are surely part of the recovery effort of any disaster. What could have been done better? How can we be better prepared for the next event?

 It might help to rethink our own positions on how we explain and cope with changes we see before our very eyes as we move into the future. Most of us have driven when torrential rain, coming by the bucketsful, reduce our visibility. Any of us who have property along beaches and rivers know what the storms do to erode sand and blow through houses like they are made of straw.

 Smerconish says all we have to do is look out our windows and turn on our televisions to see the impact. In real time we see streets turned to rivers and unchecked fires rip through California neighborhoods. There will be more of this until people of goodwill say we need to fix this.

 A newly elected president says he’s the one who can fix this. Let’s hope so. Anger won’t help the situation. Common sense will!

 Lib Campbell is a retired Methodist pastor, retreat leader, columnist and host of the blogsite www.avirtualchurch.com. She can be contacted at libcam05@gmail.com