“I don’t have time to think about how I feel.” The disheveled woman gestures at tornado-ravaged debris that once had been her home. “Look at everything we’re contending with!” Her family members are aimlessly stumbling, poking at this or that. She spends the rest of her day dabbing away grime from salvaged silver.

How do we help those in such circumstances? This week our hearts go out to those learning about destruction and personal loss due to flooding in South Carolina. Where do their feelings leave them? How do we comfort, and help them move on?

When circumstances are overwhelming, it’s easy to get stuck. There is so much to attend to immediately following disaster. Especially if the damage is personally catastrophic:

• The entire house is gone, and most of what it held.
• What about the all that paperwork, the ID that tells the world who I am?
• Where are my insurance papers?
• What about my job?
• How do I still get to work?
• Is my place of employment still up and running?
• My parents! Did they make it out okay?
• Are they injured? Do they have their heart medications?
• Where are they, anyway? Did they find a place to stay?
• Where will my family and I sleep tonight?
• How will we get food, or changes of clothing?
• What do we do about money?
• What about Suzie’s big test next week—her schoolbooks?
• Is the school even open?

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