Florida destroyed! Florida destroyed! That's...
Illustration
"Florida destroyed! Florida destroyed!" That's what the headlines read shortly after a category-four hurricane struck Florida in 1928. Winds registered at 150 miles per hour inland! It is the worst hurricane in that state's history, claiming over 1,800 lives. About as many more lives were lost throughout the Caribbean in the path of the storm. There was extensive property damage to be sure. What was so devastating was the loss of lives as people were swept away from their homes and neighborhoods; not just on the coast but also far inland as the storm reached Lake Okeechobee, creating a massacre. Many who survived the initial onslaught found themselves stranded in the wetlands or grasslands or Everglades, and died from exposure and shock as they waited for someone to find them. One report observed countless bodies strewn over the Florida landscape, decomposing under the hot September sun. In the midst of such natural disasters, people ask WHY as they search for a sense of meaning and they wonder where God is in the midst of it all. The depth of such tragedies is often experienced as "a famine ... of hearing the words of the Lord."
