The headlines about weather this year have been alarming: Sudden storms in the Southwest causing flash floods, a heat wave so severe in Europe they dubbed it “Lucifer,” devastating and deadly wildfires in the West, hurricanes in the Caribbean and South, and tornadoes touching down in the Midwest.

But amid the pictures of damage and loss are other, there are encouraging scenes. The driver of a monster truck , the kind normally seen at truck and hot-rod rallies, cruising flooded Texas streets and pulling stranded cars to higher ground. People linking arms and forming human chains to pull others through sudden flood waters. Ordinary citizens who step up to help first responders aid victims of a storm.

Like the 23-year-old man out dining with his friends when a twister hit Tulsa at 1:30 a.m. Not only did he help his injured friends, but he also helped emergency crews get those who were seriously hurt into ambulances and other emergency vehicles.

“Every time we have a major disaster, there’s always somebody like you that comes forward and helps people and saves them,” the police chief told the young man, Corion Sanchez, at the scene, according to a news report.

Amid the latest episodes are worries that weather is getting more severe and climate change is having an ongoing effect. But as the arguments over action, inaction, and consequences go on, actual storms and floods come and go. And with them are numerous instances of people helping people.

"It just is really amazing," one woman told a news station in a report about the aftermath of a storm in Minnesota. "And now that I'm sitting here thinking about it, it just makes me so emotional. It's just so good to see so many people helping everybody."

Mutual support is important in bad weather, whether it’s pulling someone from a flood or simply offering to share an umbrella. And it’s the kind of strength that MassMutual is proud to recognize.

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