As I was reading The News last Friday, I was in shock as I read the article (“California blazes hit home, affect students,” Nov. 1) on the recent California wildfires and some students’ related comments online. Not only did I feel embarrassed for these students’ comments, but I couldn’t believe the insensitivity involved. One student bluntly expressed his feelings on the lack of help Northeastern should provide to Southern California. “If there’s a really bad snowstorm [in Boston], I wouldn’t expect San Diego State to donate stuff [to Northeastern]. I don’t think Northeastern personally has anything to do with what’s going on in Southern California.” Another student compared the wildfires to the Hurricane Katrina disaster, saying she doesn’t feel the two deserve the same amount of attention. “It’s not like the whole nation should get on the bandwagon and go out and help,” she said in the article.

Wow. Let’s all just take a minute to think about this.

Sounds a little harsh, don’t you think? The wildfires caused more than a billion dollars in damage. Displacing more than 500,000 people from their homes, destroying more than 1,400 homes and destroying hundreds of thousands of acres of farm land, these wildfires were so bad they prompted President George Bush to sign a major disaster declaration, and officially went down on record as the worst natural disaster in California history.

Last I checked, the snowstorms in Boston don’t do that kind of damage.