Summer 1976 was a summer of catastrophes in many parts of the world.
Earthquakes: Two major shocks hit China's heavily-populated northeast corner causing, it is believed, tens of thousands of deaths. The worst earthquakes in Philippine history struck the southern islands. Giant waves caused many casualties.
Volcano: La Soufriere, a volcano on the French Caribbean Island of Guadeloupe, began spewing acrid fumes and ash. About seventy-two thousand people were moved from the danger zone to shelters in the north.
Floods: Flood waters twelve feet high surged down Big Thompson Canyon in Colorado, catching hundreds of residents and tourists off-guard. In South Korea, torrential rains caused floods and landslides. The heaviest rains since 1878 caused floods in Russia.
Hurricanes: Hurricane Belle struck Long Island, N.Y. causing three deaths and damage estimated at twenty million dollars.
Typhoon: Billie killed four people and injured many others in Taiwan, and almost one thousand homes were damaged. Hurricane Liza killed more than six hundred people, and as many as one thousand bodies were believed still under the mud. Fourteen thousand were injured and seventy thousand left homeless in La Paz area, Mexico.
Drought: Months of drought hit much of Europe and resulted in unprecedented water rationing in Britain and the elimination of herds of cattle.
Surely in all these things God speaks to the world. Such a catalog of disasters brings to mind previous catastrophes whereby God has spoken loudly to mankind.
Of all the volcanic eruptions in the twentieth century, probably the most devastating was the eruption of Mount Pelee in Martinique, when in an instant the principal city, St. Pierre, was utterly destroyed with its thirty thousand inhabitants.
When Mount Pelee began erupting in May 1902 The local paper endeavored to reassure the terrified inhabitants that it would probably be but a small affair, and that St. Pierre would be a safer place than ever after the volcano had relieved itself a little. The editorial concluded with this reasoning: "Where, then, can we be more secure than in St. Pierre?" Yet within two days the writer and readers were in eternity, and the whole town lay in a heap of flaming ruins.