October 11, 2024 | Blog

Hurricane Disaster and Relief Training

October 11, 2024
By John Gonzalez, Office of Mission

With the rise in Hurricane activity we need to be attentive to two things. The first is the issue of climate change which is responsible for both the active weather conditions and the rising sea levels. The second is the need to develop our sense of preparedness in order to respond to natural disasters.

The above NPR program offers an in-depth description of the first point. There are two lessons that climate editor Rachel Waldholz offers us which we need to take seriously in the aftermath of Hurricanes Helene and Milton.

First, everyone in the path of Hurricanes needs to pay attention to their local officials and listen to evacuation orders.

Second, the U.S. has to be prepared to see more storms like this as long as more warming continues and this means lowering the use of fossil fuels.

A third lesson that I want to highlight is that we need to refrain and call out politically biased misinformation that attempts to delegitimize government and organizational disaster responses.

This is true about the poor as it is with the earth. We have lost the ability to be aware of “the signs of the times”. The fact is that the increase in natural disasters should give us the pause to recognize that the earth is convalescing from the illness of our pollution and these natural disasters occur as it attempts to find balance (much like the fevers we experience when our antibodies are activated). The poor of course will have fewer resources to address these major ecological shifts and this too is something that will reach the ears of the Almighty.

The commitment that Pope Francis wants us to make is for a change of lifestyle that will respond to the needs of the poor and the needs of the earth. Part of this is a call to embrace a simple Christian lifestyle with concrete expressions such as the ones offered here.