Reading about the many hundreds dead in Mexico and Central America (especially Guatemala) from Hurricane Stan and about the tens of thousands dead in Pakistan and India from their earthquake helps to put national catastrophes (e.g., Hurricane Katrina) in some perspective. (It also induces me to increase by a bit my donations to Mercy Corps.)
John Mueller helped to do that with regard to the threats to life, health, and estate from terrorism in “A False Sense of Insecurity?.”