PLANET EARTH WITNESSING NATURAL DISASTERS IN SCALES UNPRECEDENTED AND WITH EVER-INCREASING FREQUENCIES

       With the rage released by hurricanes Harvey and Irma the world was once again reminded of just how precarious our world could be.  In just a very short period of time, things could indeed unpredictably and unexpectedly turn dramatically around. The horrible fact that natural disasters could just pop out from nowhere to drastically change one’s world literally (for the dead) forever was brought home to some many people in different parts of the world in the third quarter of 2017.

        Thanks to a proactive and dedicated fire-fighting team of over 500, no loss of life was recorded in the La Tuna Fire, a wildfire which erupted from the La Tuna canyon area of Los Angeles on Friday Sept 1 and grew to become the “largest blaze in the city’s history”. Some 5,000-acre were affected, and more than 700 homes had to be evacuated. (Details here)

       With the world’s attention diverted to other issues of more interest to it, than “some African deaths,” it took a while before external assistance came for the victims of the mudslide at Sierra Leone (August 14) and at DR Congo (August 16).  The monsoon storm that started in India leaving some 21 people died in a collapsed building in Mumbai, India, went ahead to ravish other locations in Nepal and Bangladesh.  At the end of the rage,  “more than 1,200 are estimated to have died” while some “40 million have been affected in some way by the heavy downpours.”. http://www.christianheadlines.com/blog/more-than-1-200-people-have-died-in-massive-southeast-asia-flooding.html

        Of course the major attention grabbers were hurricane Harvey and Irma.  Starting as an innocous “tropical storm” on Aug. 21, Harvey developed into a Category 1 Hurricane three days later. Less than 30 hours later (by 6 pm on Aug. 25), it had grown into a Category 4 Hurricane.  It landed four hours later bringing unprecedented carnage to Houston. It was dubbed “a disaster unlike anything that we have ever seen before in all of U.S. history,” with total amount of economic damage estimated at about 190 billion US dollars. Over 100,000 homes were destroyed and “up to one million vehicles” were ruined.

            Thereafter came Hurricane Irma followed almost immediately by Hurricane Maria (see details here). Both Irma and Maria attained Category 5 status and brought widespread devastation to the Caribbean Islands. 

            Virtually every form of natural disaster possible were manifested on grand scale during this period.  Ranging from Earthquakes (August 8, China, 25 dead; Sept 8, Mexico, 98 dead; Sept 19, Mexico, 226 dead);  to both Cold Wave (North India cold wave; January European cold wave ) and Heat Wave; Avalanches (Rigopiano avalanche;  Gurez sector avalanche, Afghanistan avalanches); Mudslides, Landslides, Tornadoes, ‎ Wildfires, and Volcano eruptions.

           Ranked on the basis on human toll, the US News has compiled what they dubbed ten of the deadliest natural disasters of 2017. These are: Over 96 killed in Mexico’s biggest earthquake in a century, 117 killed by severe rains and a downgraded cyclone in Zimbabwe, 126 killed in severe floods and other natural disasters in China, 150 killed in the flooding at Peru, and 156 killed in the avalanches caused by heavy rainfall in Afghanistan. Others were various mudslides and landslides that killed (official figures) 174 in DR Congo, 213 in Sri Lanka, 300 in Colombia, 600 in Sierra Leone, and 1200 in South Asia (600 of these in India alone). https://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/slideshows/10-of-the-deadliest-natural-disasters-of-2017.

          While those directly affected by all these are not likely to forget the experiences in a hurry, human nature is such that those of us who only read about them or watched on TV will soon get enmeshed again in our unending rat race after trivialities.  One wonders how many would be aroused by all these events to re-examine their life’s focus and priorities, knowing that  “…. the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal. (2 Cor. 4:18)

            We conclude this article with the statement generally used by Prophecy News to preface its Prophecy Updates videos:  “Never, in the history throughout the world have so many forces, including economic, scientific, technologic, ecologic, cultural, geopolitical, moral, spiritual and religion, converged together to bring this world that's already teetering over the edge into the abyss, to a point of no return. Jesus said when you see all these signs happening, know that I am near, even at the door.”