I tried to imagine what it would be like to endure a Category 5 hurricane generating 185 mph sustained winds, dumping 3 feet of rain, and pushing a wall of seawater over 20 feet tall across the island, submerging all but a few small areas of high ground, incessantly pounding everything in its path to shreds—and even moving large cement block homes hundreds of feet off their foundations. Most trees were uprooted or snapped off; those that remained were barren, leafless skeletons.

I’m sure you’ve watched in horror the media’s coverage of the devastation wrought by Hurricane Dorian this week in the Bahamas. Although known as a tourist destination and getaway for the rich, the vast majority of the Bahamian people, scattered across many of the 700 islands that make up that nation, are very poor and without the means to recover on their own.

Lots of rain is expected this time of year in the Southeast Asian nation of Laos, since this is their monsoon season, but this has been a year of drought.