Are all of the "natural disaster" of the Indian ocean, southern asia region simply natural disasters? Is God judging? Should we care?

Saturday, late afternoon.

Last Christmas the terrible tsunami struck in the Indian ocean.  Since then, several other earthquakes have jolted the region, although none as damaging as the one at Christmas.  About a week ago a monsoon swamped India.  I mention this because as of this afternoon I could find no headlines on the home page I use in my browser, a well known site.  Yet, just this morning the report was that the death toll would be over 1,000.  As of this afternoon BBC reports the death toll at 853. I have heard very little about this disaster, except for short news stories on the web.  I am confident more news exists, just not on American news sources.

Why?

The question could be taken at least two ways.  First, why don't the news media have more coverage of this disaster?  That is, perhaps, too political or philosophical of a controversy for this late in the day.

A second way to ask the question, however, is why has this general region of the globe suffered so much in the last year?  A 1,000 deaths is no comparison to the huge number from Christmas last year, but it measures ten times the size of casualties from the London subway bombings of a couple of weeks ago. This rates the event as a major disaster.

Maybe the world is just "naturally" unstable in that region and natural disasters are a part of life.  On the other hand, this is the land of Hinduism and Buddhism.  While Christianity is present, most who are not Hindus or Buddhists are Muslim.  One could clearly call this area the land of false gods or false teachings.  As severe as it seems, as unloving as it seems, do you suppose God is exercising His wrath on this region in an effort to cause them to listen to the many evangelists and Christian volunteers who have flooded to the area? Does God do such things?  Or are natural disasters solely the work of Satan, sin, and nature?

Do you worry about events in this fashion?  Should we be concerned over whether or not a monsoon is something more than a natural disaster?  If it is a judgment from God, what should we be doing about it?  The Christian community is renown for supplying aid in such situations, but is there something else to be done?

Jim A