Hurricane Elsa turned out to be fairly polite and mild mannered for a hurricane. Most Floridians I talked to were quite nonchalant about the standard preparations. We have seen some monster storms in the last few years, and Elsa couldn't make up her mind whether or not to be a hurricane, and we have been in the Coronavirus alert state for too long, anyway.

But, in some ways, all that is beside the point. Storms can change fast, move erratically, and even get stuck for days over a specific location. Hurricane Dorian's stay over the Bahamas is a case in point. This is where a unified and prepared community can make a difference in survival, and in the quality of living in the aftermath and reconstruction. We should all take the most basic precautions, and keep water for drinking, canned goods, toilet paper and light sources on hand if we live in hurricane country during hurricane season. The same for blizzards up north.

Then there is the Disaster Response Community, a special community of groups and their individuals who make it their work to help prepare and most importantly, to respond when a community is experiencing disaster, and in the aftermath. These amazing groups are coordinated through a network of VOADs, which are associations of Voluntary Organizations Active in Disasters.

The Volunteer Ministers of the Church of Scientology are just such a group who show up in their yellow shirts and pitch in. .They have been seen helping in different capacities around the world, even during the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic. They are individuals of many abilities and a tireless willingness to help, they have chainsaw crews, and people trained in Search and Rescue, they are ministers trained in counseling, and have teams who will go door to door to find shut ins and deliver food, water and hygiene kits, they will just sit and listen. These are people who operate on the motto"Something can be done about it", as stated by L. Ron Hubbard. www.voluteerministers.org