Tens of thousands of people in Indiana began a second week without electricity after a deadly storm brought down trees and power lines. In Gary, a community center has been handing out boxed lunches. Meanwhile thousands evacuated in Reno as a fast-moving fire reached thirteen thousand acres and threatened hundreds of homes, one of more than two hundred new fires that started nationwide over a single weekend.

The two stories are receiving very different amounts of attention, and the reason has almost nothing to do with how many people are affected.