What Disasters Really Tell Us About Human Nature

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The full version of this dispatch includes some news about my poetry collection, Echoes of Migrations, and an analysis of a Beyonce conspiracy theory, how AI is spreading disinformation, and more!

I’ve been following the heartbreaking news of Hurricane Helene (and now Milton), watching as people struggle to escape the storm’s devastation. But what stopped me cold was an image of police officers standing guard at a grocery store—a company, it seems, would rather let its food rot than share it with people in desperate need. The absurdity of it left me furious. How could this be the priority during a disaster?

Turns out, this isn’t an isolated incident; it’s a phenomenon known as Elite Panic. First identified in 2008 by two sociologists, Elite Panic describes how, in the wake of disasters, the focus of those in power shifts from providing relief to maintaining control. This isn’t about rescuing people or helping communities recover. It’s about preventing civil disorder, as if the people suffering from the disaster are somehow the enemy. We saw it after Hurricane Katrina, when government resources were poured into policing so-called looters instead of coordinating life-saving efforts like search and rescue.

What’s most frustrating is that decades of research show something remarkable: in times of crisis, people generally come together. They share food, shelter, and resources. The instinct, for most, is to help—not to riot. Sociologists studying the aftermath of disasters have consistently found that volunteer-led initiatives—whether it's coordinating rescues or rebuilding communities—often emerge as a natural response. For instance, after the 1964 earthquake in Alaska, scientists expected to find mass panic and looting. Instead, they discovered people helping one another, organizing recovery efforts, and rebuilding their communities from the ground up.

This makes Elite Panic even more maddening. When authorities assume that citizens will become dangerous, they direct their energy toward controlling the public rather than addressing the disaster itself. They clamp down on information, restrict freedom of movement, and deploy resources to enforce laws they fear are about to be broken. Not only is this a colossal waste of time and energy, but it actually undermines the public’s natural capacity for resilience. One study pointed out that nervous officials can actively get in the way of people trying to help themselves and their neighbors.

We’re seeing this play out now with Hurricane Helene and Milton. People who are trying to help evacuate others are being threatened with arrest. Let that sink in for a moment: authorities are criminalizing rescue efforts from ordinary citizens. WTF.

I also came across a horrifying story about a plastics company in Tennessee that threatened to fire workers if they didn’t come into work during the storm. Eleven people were swept away by floodwaters. Two are confirmed dead, and four are still missing. All because their CEO, who stayed safe and dry at home, decided that profits were more important than human lives. No job is worth your life—this is your reminder of that. And frankly, this CEO should be in jail for what he’s done.

Watching all of this unfold in real-time has left me thinking about the importance of community resilience. Knowing your neighbors, building trust, and creating support systems are essential—not just for weathering literal storms but for surviving the broader crises of our time. There’s a cynical part of me that wonders if governments and corporations are afraid of us realizing just how capable we are when we rely on each other. Maybe they fear that if we shift away from the hyper-individualism that props up their systems and toward more collective, community-driven solutions, we’d start to see through the cracks in the fa?ade.

It’s something to keep in mind as we face the ongoing realities of climate catastrophe. The lessons are there: community and collaboration, not command and control, are what save lives.

AI & Disaster Conspiracies

Also, while watching disaster footage online, I couldn’t help but scroll through the comments—and what I saw was frustrating. There’s a growing narrative claiming that these storms are “man-made” weapons, specifically targeting red states for political reasons. This isn’t a new idea—it first popped up during Hurricane Isaac—but the fact that it’s resurfacing during every major disaster says something about our collective willingness to believe in far-fetched explanations, rather than confronting the inconvenient truths of climate change.

There is also a real danger. FEMA had to suspend operations in storm-ravaged areas after receiving threats. In fact, consider that FEMA has a whole "rumor" page dedicated to debunk misinformation. Now, we also have generated AI images that further confuse people.

On Telegram, Russian channels used an AI generated image of a flooded Disney World that was picked up by both Russian and English-speaking news outlets.

What’s really disheartening is that the real issue is staring us in the face: fossil fuel emissions, amplified by ongoing military conflicts that dump massive amounts of carbon into the atmosphere. Every bomb dropped in Ukraine or in the Middle East—it’s all accelerating the climate crisis. Yet, instead of addressing the real causes, people are latching onto these absurd conspiracy theories. It’s easier, I guess, to imagine that a shadowy cabal is controlling the weather than to grapple with the fact that our addiction to fossil fuels is destroying the planet.