Earth- Changing Events :Recent Disasters of the Millennium

Earth- Changing Events :Recent Disasters of the Millennium

Compiled by: John Van Auken

Since Edgar Cayce stopped giving readings (August 1944) and passed over to the other realms of life (January 3, 1945), many significant Earth-changing events have occurred, as he predicted. Let’s take an updated look at recent disasters.

• We are still holding in prayer the survivors of the 7.3 magnitude earthquake that hit Haiti on January 12, 2010. Death counts are now estimated at 200,000 and may still rise.
• A 7.9 magnitude earthquake in Sichuan Province, China on May 12, 2008, resulted in more than 60,000 deaths.The intense quake was so powerful that it was felt as far away as Beijing, 943 miles to the northeast, and Thai, the capital of Bangkok, 1,118 miles south! It was the strongest quake in China in 30 years. More than 300 aftershocks were registered in the days that followed the quake, and a Chinese seismologist warned residents in earthquake-affected areas in southwest China of more tremors, which could be just as devastating. “Wenchuan is prone to earthquakes as it is on a major fault line—the south-north fault line that runs from Yunnan to Ningxia,” said Zhang Guomin, a research fellow with the China Seismological Bureau.
• On May 7, 2008, a magnitude 6.8 earthquake off the Japanese coast rattled Tokyo City. A second quake hit in the same area about half an hour later with a magnitude of 5.3. Japan is one of the most earthquake-prone countries in the world, although Tokyo has not been hit with a major quake since the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake, which killed 140,000 people. Japan sits on the junction of five tectonic plates and 80 active volcanoes!
• Another recent disaster is the cyclone on May 6, 2008, which ravaged the Irrawaddy delta in Myanmar (formerly known as Burma) and resulted in 138,000 deaths.
• A 7.7 magnitude earthquake in Java in July 2006, also triggered tsunamis.
• A 7.6 magnitude Kashmir earthquake in October 2005, cost 79,000 lives in Pakistan.
• Hurricane Katrina struck the U.S. Gulf Coast in August 2005; damage estimates from insurance costs alone were $30 billion! It was the most expensive disaster ever to hit the U.S., eclipsing Andrew in 1992, whose property damage was $25 billion.
• A tsunami on December 26, 2004, killed an estimated 283,000! Indonesia lost more than 230,000, Sri Lanka lost nearly 31,000, and India lost over 16,000. The U.S. Geological Survey said the earthquake that caused the tsunami measured 9.3 on the Richter scale, making it the largest quake worldwide in four decades.
• The great Midwest flood of 1993 was the costliest flood in U.S. history, with estimated damages of $20 billion; however, only around 50 lives were lost.
• The eruption of Mount Pinatubo, Philippines, on June 15, 1991, blasted about 1 cubic mile of ash and rock into the atmosphere. Avalanches of hot ash, gas, and fragments of pumice roared down the mountainside, filling valleys with as much as 600 feet of volcanic debris! The deposits will retain much of their heat for decades; even 5 years later they were measured at 900° F. Close cooperation between the U.S.G.S. and the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology enabled the eruption to be forecast accurately, saving at least 5,000 lives.
• A 1995 earthquake in Kobe, Japan, resulted in nearly 6,500 deaths and property damage of $150 billion.
• An earthquake was responsible for the deadliest landslide this century, which caused 40,000 to 50,000 deaths in western Iran on June 20, 1990.
• The Nevado del Ruiz volcanic eruption in Colombia in 1985, ended the lives of 25,000 people, most of them caught in a massive mud flow that poured down the stricken mountain, inundating the city of Armero. By comparison, the Mount St. Helens eruption in 1980 shattered the peak and sent ash through the air for hundreds of miles but had few fatalities.
• The most costly landslide in U.S. history was a relatively slow-moving event in Thistle, Utah, in the spring of 1983. The landslide was caused by the wet El Niño winter of 1982-83. Total property losses were more than $400 million.
• The most devastating earthquake following Cayce’s passing was the 1976 Tangshan magnitude 8 event in China, whose toll varies between the official 255,000 and the more probable 655,000!
• Bangladesh and China have been devastated repeatedly by floods—Bangladesh lost 300,000 people in November 1970, and more than 130,000 in April 1991, from cyclone-induced flooding.
• A magnitude 7.9 earthquake at Mount Huascaran, Peru, on May 21, 1970, triggered a rock-and-snow avalanche that buried the towns of Yungay and Ranrahirca, killing perhaps as many as 70,000 people.
• The most powerful quake in the U.S., and the second largest in the world this century, was a 9.2 temblor in Alaska, the Good Friday quake of 1964. The ensuing tsunami took 125 lives and caused about $310 million in property loss. The resulting tsunami wiped out an entire village in faraway Hawaii.
• The largest earthquake this century was a magnitude 9.5 event that struck Chile on May 22, 1960. More than 2,000 people were killed in Chile, Hawaii, Japan, and the Philippines from this earthquake and the deadly tsunami that the quake created.
• Massive flooding of the Yangtze River in China in 1931 caused more than 3 million deaths from flooding and subsequent starvation.

Our planet is actively changing. In one reading, Cayce stated that none of the physical devastation he predicted has to happen. The stability of the planet lies in humanity’s collective hands. Cayce also confirmed the biblical axiom that 10 good people can save an entire city. This brings to mind an old story told by the editor of Guideposts magazine. He received letters from two different women in a small town in California. Each told him how they were awakened in the dark hours of predawn and powerfully guided by Spirit to go out into the street of their little town and pray. They both did. Around 5 a.m., a powerful earthquake hit their town, destroying the entire downtown area, but not one person was killed or even injured. These two ladies did not know each other, living on opposite corners of the town. In this case, the prayers of two saved a town.

Rather than get anxious over the world situation and sound-bite political leaders, prayer is a powerful service we can perform for our fellow planet dwellers. Our prayers ascend into the Collective Consciousness and subliminally affect the whole of human consciousness and nature’s sensitive vibrations.

Prayer time is also a wonderful sanctuary from the world’s weight. In this inner space of contacting God with love and caring for others, we can find a refuge for our often weary hearts and minds.

As Cayce advised, “Why worry when you can pray? He [God] is the Whole, you are a part. Coordinate your abilities with the Whole.” (Reading 2528-2)