Master of Disaster

There are major disasters happening all over the world, floods, wildfires, hurricanes, wars... Anytime you look on the internet, you can't help but be a witness to the suffering that's going on, as well as the examples of heroism in the face of what may sometimes seem like insurmountable odds. People, and even animals, continue to demonstrate not only a will to survive, but often a need to come to the aid of their fellow living being. It's honorable, inspiring, and... not always what the human psyche is about.
If you're a crime, mystery, horror, or thriller writer, then you must understand that evil doesn't take a break when disaster hits. In fact, very often evil will take advantage of the chaos created during a disaster in order to carry out it's agenda. Serial killers, rapists, murderers, kidnappers, etc. see disasters as an opportunity to prey on those made even more vulnerable by the (hopefully) temporary breakdown of emergency services, police response, and society as a whole. When the flood waters rise and the smoke of wildfires obscure the landscape, now is the time for those of the criminal element to strike, and strike fast before the rule of law and order are restored.
And so, if you are indeed a crime, mystery, horror, or thriller writer, these terrible disasters can be the perfect background for your next novel or short story. I'm not encouraging you to make a profit out of the suffering of others, but let's face it, if you're a writer in any of the genres that I just mentioned, isn't that what you already do? Some of the best writings or movies, from Homeric poems to "Bushwick", take the consumer down the dark paths of the human condition. We like to think that the best of us comes out when disaster strikes, but the truth is that the worst of us often makes an appearance as well. That's what I found so fascinating about a book titled, "The Last Policeman" by  Ben H. Winters. It follows a police detective in New Hampshire as he investigates a suicide he believes was really a murder, but his efforts at an investigation are complicated by the social, political and economic upheavels created by the fact that an asteroid is going to impact the earth six months in the future.  So here's a guy who is a cop, trying to conduct an investigation, while he and everyone around him knows that life, as they know it, will cease to exist in six months!
So keep that in mind the next time that you're agonizing about the world you're creating for the characters in your next short story, novella, or novel. Perhaps fighting for survival and/or against the elements, as well as for the truth or to stop a crime or crimes, would raise the bar of tension and level of conflict in your next work. And as I've said before, it is conflict that makes your story move.
So maybe it's time for you to become the next Master of Disaster.