A History-Making Storm—With a Valuable Lesson

NASA GOES Project Text: NASA/Rob Gutro/flickr

A History-Making Storm—With a Valuable Lesson

It’s been called the “perfect storm,” a “Frankenstorm,” a “superstorm” and the “storm of the century.” On Monday morning, the outer arms of Hurricane Sandy were slamming a 1,000-mile stretch of America’s Eastern Seaboard.

According to meteorologists, there is no known precedent for this history-making monster of a storm. Coming just days before the election, and with billions of dollars’ worth of damage already sustained, Sandy has the potential to change the course of history in America.

The timing is not accidental. In a year already characterized by strange and abnormal weather, there is a critical lesson that America should be learning from its disastrous weather.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T03ykrL-8T4&list=UUuwIymxgYBezp5I0Q053_Rg&index=1&feature=plcp

The damage is racking up—maybe an astounding $100 billion before it is over, according to one estimate. Sunday night, regulators shuttered the New York Stock Exchange. Then on Monday, they announced it would stay closed on Tuesday too. It is the first time since 1888 that the exchange has been closed for two consecutive days due to weather.

But the exchange is not alone. The streets of America’s financial capital are deserted. Wall Street is empty. The headquarters of the nation’s biggest banks are closed for business. A whopping 375,000 people have been evacuated from the city so far. Schools are closed. New York’s two main tunnels into and out of the city are closed. Grand Central Station is closed. For only the second time in New York’s history, its mass transit system is closed. The first was during last year’s tropical storm Irene. The National Guard is deployed.

New York is not alone either. Sandy is spinning a 1,000-mile diameter swath of hurricane-force winds. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie told people to get out of Dodge. “Don’t be stupid. Get out,” he said. Low-lying areas are already flooding.

Getting anywhere may soon be impossible. Over 13,000 flights have been cancelled so far—with a cascading effect that is being felt across the country. Amtrak has stopped all East Coast services. The governor of Connecticut has closed all state highways, saying, “This is the most catastrophic event that we have faced … in any of our lifetimes.”

The eye of the storm hit the New Jersey area Monday evening—coinciding with the monthly high tide. Storm surges are expected to be at least 11 feet above normal. But New York could get it even worse. As one commentator described it: “Long Island Sound is best understood as a bathtub with drains at both ends. Right now the faucet is on and the drains are clogged. It’s filling up.”

The National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration’s hurricane division says the surge and wave “destruction potential” for Sandy will hit 5.8 out of 6—a new record high that is being powered by the storm’s massive size.

Atlantic City is almost completely under water. “The city’s basically flooded,” said Willie Glass, Atlantic City’s public safety director. “It looks like it’s going to be worse than the storm of ’62, which was monumental.”

For many of the 50 million people who will be affected, the worst part may be the prolonged nature of the storm—due to its unique meteorological origins. The storm originally began as three separate storms. An Arctic blast of cold air from the north first collided with a normal winter low pressure trough to form an onshore cold front. Now warm-water storm Sandy is headed its way. The hybrid-Frankenstorm that resulted could linger with sustained strong winds for more than 48 hours. A lot of people could be trapped without power for a long time.

And that could lead to unrest of various kinds. If things go bad, “people will be ‘fighting in the streets’ for gas, food,” abc headlined earlier today.

But the thing people should be paying most attention to is the timing of the storm. Watching the violent weather now dominate politics in the news just days before an election should be reminder that there is a higher power.

Yes, President Obama’s response to this storm—or even simply the public perception of his response to the storm—could have huge implications on the national elections. Romney is surging in the polls. The race is close.

Both the Bible and history are clear on this point. Weather, natural disasters, calamities can change the course of history. The Bible says God uses the weather as an instrument of His will. When we see record disasters, God is allowing them for a reason.

That is the lesson of this storm that most people are missing. Gerald Flurry explained in a recent Key of David television program: “The weather upsets in this nation are biblical.”

In an August 29 program, Gerald Flurry warned that the record-breaking weather disasters hitting America are not coincidences, but fulfilled prophecies from the Bible. They are God’s way of “measuring destruction” on America—for its sins.

And it doesn’t matter one bit who America elects as its next president if people are not willing to change.

Mr. Flurry said, “[O]ne political party in the U.S., the liberal political party, will say, ‘Well, if we don’t win this election in the United States, there’s going to be a great catastrophe in this land.’ And the conservatives will say the same thing, ‘Well, if we don’t win this election, there’s a great catastrophe in this land.’ But I’ll tell you, it doesn’t make any difference who wins, there is a great catastrophe in this land, and we must see that or perish. We must see it! God says He will protect us if we respond to Him, individually. But our problems will never be solved by a political party. Never!”

The good news is that, even though it may not seem like it, the record-breaking weather disasters striking America are a sign of God’s love. God wants people to change. He wants people to live happy, prosperous lives filled with meaning and purpose. God wants people to live His way of life. Eventually He will give every person who has ever lived this opportunity, but until then, this destruction is His way of sending correction to a nation that should know better. There is a reason America is being struck with so many natural disasters. And they will keep on coming until everyone learns why.