This fall in creation is bested by tornado, hurricane, flood, pandemic, and more.

LCMS disaster response helps our congregations, their pastors, and other church workers

to reach out to their members and neighbors with mercy which flows from Christ to altar.

We offer quality, volunteer training, help for congregational readiness and response

and disaster grant funding.

To learn more, visit LCMS.org-disaster.

That's LCMS.org-disaster.

The wildfires in Hawaii are horrific news, rising death toll, hundreds still missing, weeks later.

What makes a disaster like a fire like this different from other natural disasters

of hurricane, a tornado, a flood?

Welcome back to issues, etc. I'm Todd Wilkin, joining us to get an update on Maui fire relief efforts.

Dr. Ross Johnson, he's director of LCMS World Relief in Human Care Disaster Response.

Ross, welcome back.

Hi Todd, thanks for having me.

What do we know about the situation in Maui after these fires?

The situation in Maui is absolutely dire.

We're seeing one of the worst natural disasters or worst wildfires in recent history.

We have over 114 people that are found dead.

They have many hundreds more that are missing.

And what we're seeing is a lot of hopelessness and despair on the island.

A lot of shock from the residents, the people that have grown up in the area that are absolutely in shock.

There's a lot of anger as well, anger at the government, anger at life in general.

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