I never understood why anyone would pray to god for disaster relief...
...when god was the one who sent the disaster in the first place.
Of course, if there is no god, or if god is unaware of us, or indifferent to us, or even if he has some Plan that somehow requires wholesale suffering of the righteous, then the disaster makes sense. Nature is random and chaotic and the massacre of innocents and the thriving of the wicked is just what you might expect from a random and chaotic Universe.
But if that's the case, then prayer makes no sense at all.