Prayer in the face of disaster

Faced with so many disasters, "natural" and "man made" (yes largely "man" rather than 'human made', I think). Many, not just Christians, are drawn to prayer.(see here for example). We might, and do, ask whether it makes the slightest bit of difference. Some will have ready answers, either way.
It is of course a complex issue and raises all sorts of questions.

• How can God answer the conflicting prayers of people with equanimity..God give us more rain; God stop this torrential downpour
• How can God line up on conflicting sides of a struggle: God of Israel, God of Palestine...come to our aid
• How can God overcome the will of those determined to act in an evil way? ....Auschwitz!
  

These are three of the more simple issues! The real problem, it seems to me, is what do our prayers say about the sort of God we allegedly believe in. Very often, our prayers betray more about us than they do about God. We are not called to institute the God we would like to exist, (in general the God who will do my bidding!), we are called to to follow the true God and respond in obedience.
What I do believe, and from my own viewpoint "know", is that God deals with me personally and invites me to change and grow.
It is easy, on one level, to fire my prayers off at Pakistan and Iraq and feel good about it. But, in the end, I need to choose to act in my sphere of influence...what will the earthquake in Pakistan actually call me to be and do?
In so far, too, that I know there are many men and women of all faiths (and none) who are open to acting responsibly in every situation...I pray too that they also may respond.
It is "drop in the ocean" stuff. But is, I suggest, not all we have but where change begins.