This article suggests that people are more shaken by disasters that wreak havoc among the middle class. If the victims are people who are out of sight (the poor, the old, and those who live alone), the public hardly notices. Moreover, a disaster that causes dramatic visible destruction also catches people's attention. Other than that, what makes a disaster seems to be nothing more than a variation from what is normal. The climatologist says, "What makes a heat wave in Duluth is not what makes a heat wave in Dallas." So we respond to the normal conditions of wherever we live.