It’s been said this week that the reminder from the deadly wildfires on Maui, just like other natural disasters, is remembering that while we can’t control nature, we can control how we prepare and how we respond to them when they happen.
Natural disasters are part of living on earth. They happen everywhere. And like what happened on Maui, sometimes the perfect storm happens, when a random set of circumstances all come together to create a major disaster.
That’s what happened in Hawaii, when a hurricane that didn’t come close enough to bring rain to an island suffering from a drought but instead came just close enough for its winds to combine with another weather system to create tornado like gusts that drove the flames right through Lahaina.
The often random nature of these disasters also raises questions among survivors who ask, why did I make it and others did not? Was it luck or was it providence?
We are hearing the stories now of visitors headed to Lahaina who were delayed for some reason and so were not in the town when the fires hit but would have been in the wrong place at the wrong time had it not been for luck or divine guidance.
And we are hearing the stories of survivors who, not knowing where to run, chose to run one way instead of another way and it turned out to be the way toward escape…when others chose another way that turned out not to be.
So when these natural disasters happen, it makes us all remember just how precious and fragile life can be and makes us more grateful for every day.
(Photo Getty Images)