While the foothills of Oregon’s Cascade Mountains have been ablaze, creating red apocalyptic skies and leaving five small towns in ashes, most of the churches in the Archdiocese of Portland have not burned and many have offered shelter to thousands of evacuees.

Priests in Louisiana are discovering that by helping those affected by Hurricane Laura, they are finding renewed purpose in their vocations.

Bishops from the dioceses of Beaumont, Texas, and Lake Charles, Louisiana, found themselves assessing damages and checking in with others hours after destructive Hurricane Laura had passed.

Evacuation orders have affected more than 250,000 Californians, including many Catholics in the Archdiocese of San Francisco and the dioceses of San Jose, Sacramento and Monterey.

Officials reported that at least 12 people had died as Tropical Storm Laura lashed Haiti and the Dominican Republic with strong winds and torrential rains, causing widespread flooding in low-lying communities.

The oil spill off the coast of Mauritius has renewed attention as to how environmental disasters affect ecological and economic life.