The earthquake happened in the early hours of Wednesday, August 24th 2016. More than 200 aftershocks with a magnitude of up to 6.0 were registered in the country.
After the events recorded in Aquila in 2009, the recent earthquake, which mainly hit central Italy, is among the most severe in recent years. Unfortunately, the number of deaths continues to grow. Currently, about 159 bodies have been found.
Ascoli Piceno, Rieti and Perugia were the most affected provinces, as well as the towns of Amatrice, Arquata del Tronto, Accumoli and Norcia (called by the Italians “paesi”).
In Accumoli, 2,500 were left homeless; nearly two thousand of these people were on vacation, as they usually do in the summer. The city’s mayor, Stefano Petrucci, told the press that the town no longer exists.
Rescue teams are incessantly searching to locate people buried in the rubble. While two brothers, 4 and 7, were rescued alive from the ruins, another 4 year old, from the city of Amatrice, died at Ascoli Piceno hospital. An 18-month-old girl was also among the victims. Many others remain missing.
The cities where there is a Help Center (Universal Church), did not suffer major tremors (Syracuse, Naples, Rome, Florence, Verona, Venezia, Padova, Torino, Genova and Milan). Some felt slight tremors, but nothing more than that.
As for the affected areas, tents have been assembled to house the population. This is an important deed because, even though we are in August, at night the local temperature can drop to 10ºC.
People are still in shock. After all, for the past 15 years, the population has experienced strong tremors, usually overnight, which hit unsuspecting populations.
Terror is stamped on the face of the victims who lost their homes, loved ones and everything they conquered. This apocalyptic event not only awakened the curiosity of scholars, or the religious and superstitious, but also all the volunteers that moved in to help.
In general, Italians don’t usually believe in biblical prophecies, but when they are involved in this kind of phenomena, they begin to reflect, even though they are being moved by fear and despair.
Remember that, in Scripture, we see the word earthquake more than 500 times. Among these, we can highlight the apocalyptic warnings. However, in Matthew, Luke or Mark 13.8, we find the revelation we are experiencing now:
For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be earthquakes in various places, and there will be famines and troubles. These are the beginnings of sorrows.
No one can be prepared for a tragedy, but we can prepare the fate of our soul (either for eternal life or eternal “death”), according to the choices we make today. Therefore, we cannot limit ourselves or remain quiet during the events we are seeing and hearing. We have to work twice as hard to bring awareness that people need to accept the Lord Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.
A sincere and complete conversion in His Word, begins when a person places himself aside, places his pride and “preconceptions” last, decides to participate in meetings of faith and miracles, places God in the forefront, learns to make use of an intelligent faith and takes hold of the eternal life that was promised to His children, to those who believe and obey.