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An anything-but-peaceful week in the Pacific

04 Oct 2009 - Preaching the News for Sunday

The Pharisees tested Jesus with their question on divorce, we hear in this Sunday's gospel. The people and disaster resources of nations across the Pacific are being tested this week by a spate of powerful natural disasters. The Philippines suffered the worst flooding to hit the country in more than 40 years after tropical storm Ketsana swept through earlier in the week. Overwhelmed officials have called for international help in the storm's aftermath and fear that another powerful storm could hit as early as Friday. Ketsana grew to typhoon-force as it gathered strength across the South China Sea before blowing down wooden villages in Cambodia and crushing Vietnamese houses under mudslides. "We're used to storms that sweep away one or two houses. But I've never seen a storm this strong," said Nam Tum, governor of Cambodia's Kampong Thom province. The storm has claimed at least 331 lives across the region. The Vietnamese government said the tempest destroyed or damaged nearly 180,000 homes, inundated 150,000 more, and flattened crops across central Vietnam. More than 350,000 people were evacuated from the typhoon's path, posing a logistical headache to shelter and feed them. "The scale of the devastation is stretching all of us," said Minnie Portales, a World Vision aid agency official in the Philippines. Meanwhile, disaster officials rushed food, medicine, and a temporary morgue to the Samoas on Wednesday after a powerful earthquake unleashed a tsunami that leveled villages and swept cars and people out to sea. At least 119 people were killed, and the death toll is expected to rise. Many towns and tourist resorts along the southern coast of Samoa's main Upolu Island were "destroyed," according to witnesses. In addition, a powerful earthquake rocked western Indonesia Wednesday, trapping thousands under collapsed buildings--including two hospitals--and triggering landslides. At least 75 people were killed on the island of Sumatra, and the number of dead is predicted to climb sharply. Source: Articles by Rohan Sullivan, Teresa Cerojano, and Tran Van Minh for Associated Press

pacific indonesia upolu island tsunami samoas world vision minnie portales nam tum vietnam cambodia ketsana philippines disasters earthquake flooding sumatra

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Powerless in the face of Irene’s wrath

04 Sep 2011 - Preaching the News for Sunday

The “son of man” mentioned in the reading from the Book of Ezekiel this Sunday is appointed watchman for the house of Israel and charged with warning the people to heed the Lord’s word. Though many East Coast residents heeded warnings and took shelter from Hurricane Irene, no one could have prevented the widespread power outages and flooding that followed in the storm’s wake. It may take weeks for hard-hit areas to recover. As blue skies and temperate breezes returned to the region this week, a clearer picture of the storm’s devastation emerged, with the gravest consequences stemming from river flooding in Vermont, New Jersey, and upstate New York. At midweek about 2 million people remained without power in waterlogged homes and businesses from North Carolina through New England. The storm has been blamed for at least 44 deaths in 13 states. The raging Passaic River crested Tuesday night, causing extensive flooding and forcing a new round of evacuations and rescues in Paterson, New Jersey’s third-largest city. "Been in Paterson all my life, I'm 62 years old, and I've never seen anything like this," said resident Gloria Moses as she gathered with others at the edge of what used to be a network of streets, now covered by a lake. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, after touring the town of Wayne, through which the Passaic also flows, said Tuesday night he saw "just extraordinary despair." In Vermont officials focused on providing basic necessities to residents who in many cases still have no power, no telephone service, and no way to get in or out of their towns. Irene will most likely prove to be one of the 10 costliest catastrophes in the nation’s history, and analysts said much of the damage might not be covered by insurance because it was caused not by winds but by flooding, which is excluded from many standard policies. In a prelude to ugly autumn budget fights, the White House and its Republican foes battled Wednesday over whether disaster relief for Irene's victims must be offset by spending cuts elsewhere. Sources: Articles by Oliver Knox for Agence France Presse, John Curran for the Associated Press,and Abbey Goodnough, Danny Hakim, and Michael Cooper for the New York Times

disasters chris christie paterson passaic river new jersey vermont hurricane irene

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Church responds to Philippines typhoon disaster

17 Nov 2013 - Preaching the News for Sunday

“There will be powerful earthquakes, famines, and plagues from place to place,” Jesus told his disciples about the end time. While Typhoon Haiyan may not have signaled the end of the world, it has certainly changed the worlds of the millions of people in the Philippines and beyond.One of the most powerful land-storms ever recorded, the 195-mile-per-hour winds of the “super typhoon” brought mass destruction and death to the central Phillippines, with the provinces of Leyte and Samar hit the hardest. In addition to the thousands of fatalities, the Philippine government has put the number of people affected at about 8 million, while the United Nations Office for Co-Ordination of Humanitairan Affairs says 11.3 million are in need of vital goods and services.The storm devastated Tacloban, a Leyte island city of 225,000, and Christine Atillo-Villero, a doctor from nearby Cebu City, said “90 percent” of her hometown “is destroyed—nothing left.” The Sisters of the Divine Savior in Cebu have opened their damaged school office as a shelter, while the Sisters of Mercy said their community in Tacloban had been “badly affected.”Because the storm also struck a region of small islands, communication among aid workers as well as delivery of help to the area has been extremely difficult. Joe Curry, country director for the U.S. Catholic bishops’ Catholic Relief Services, said workers would have to go island-hopping to get to those most in need. Brother James Lee of the Philippine Jesuit province said even the military cannot get to different sectors and so there are problems securely distributing food and other supplies.As early as November 5 Philippine officials began a major effort to get residents in the typhoon’s path out of their homes and into reinforced structures and to secure crops and livestock. In a national address President Benigno Aquino implored those at risk to cooperate. But “despite the precautions,” said Father Edwin Gariguez, executive security of the Philippines arm of Caritas International, the Vatican-based international network of Catholic aid agencies, “this was beyond all expectations.”Aquino told CNN that storms like Haiyan were becoming more frequent and that there should be "no debate" climate change was happening. Either the world commits itself to action on climate change, he said, or "let us be prepared to meet disasters." The World Meterological Organization (WMO) said record high sea levels combined with rising temperatures mean a greater likelihood of the kind of coastal destruction Haiyan-like storms cause. 2013 is heading toward being among the top-ten warmest years on record, the WMO says.At his November 10 Angelus in St. Peter’s Square, Pope Francis asked for prayers for typhoon victims and expressed his “closeness to the people of the Philippines and that region.” He also encouraged the thousands of gathered pilgrims: “Let’s try also to make our concrete help reach them.”Homily hint: In addition to his prayers Pope Francis gave $150,000 to Haiyan relief efforts through the Pontifical Council Cor Unum. Numerous organizations are accepting donations, among them Catholic Relief Services. Encourage your community to help in whatever way it can. Sources: Articles by Carol Glatz and Simone Orendain and other news items from Catholic News Service,an article by BBC News, and news items from sistersofthediviesavior.org and sistersof mercy.org

Pope Francis caritas international tacloban cebu city leyte samar typhoons typhoon haiyan catholic relief services philippines disasters benigno aquino

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Contaminated water plagues Toledo

10 Aug 2014 - Preaching the News for Sunday

The reading from the Book of Kings moves us from one calamity of nature to another while Elijah struggles to discover the Lord. Facing a man-made calamity in the form of contaminated drinking water caused by polluted runoff, residents of Toledo, Ohio struggle to cope with a threat to their drinking water because of dangerous toxins in Lake Erie.Though an outright ban on tap water has been lifted for the moment, it likely will return as algae blooms create dangerous toxins that normally do not peak until September. Flooded by tides of phosphorus washed from fertilized farms, cattle feedlots, and leaky septic systems, the most intensely developed of the Great Lakes is increasingly being choked each summer by thick mats of algae, much of it poisonous.And the troubles are not restricted to the Great Lakes. Poisonous algae are found in polluted inland lakes from Minnesota to Nebraska to California, and even in the glacial-era kettle ponds of Cape Cod in Massachusetts. Similar blooms also are strangling Lake Winnipeg, one of Canada’s largest, and some bays in Lake Huron.Even oceans are not immune. Algae fed by phosphorus runoff from mid-America farms helped create an oxygen-free dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico last summer that was nearly as big as New Jersey. The Chesapeake Bay regularly struggles with a similar problem.Homily hint: The Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church issued by the Vatican recognizes the importance of water. “Without water, life is threatened. Therefore, the right to safe drinking water is a universal and inalienable right.” Much of the world faces chronic water shortages. The situation in Toledo is a wake-up call that drinkable water must always come first, before profits or industrial use. Source: An article by Michael Wines for The New York Times

drinking water environmentalism natural disasters

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Nepal reels from scope of earthquake loss

03 May 2015 - Preaching the News for Sunday

This Sunday’s responsorial psalm proclaims that “our God is Lord of the living and the dead.” The number of the dead as a result of the deadly earthquake in the Himalayan nation of Nepal last weekend has crossed 5,000, a home ministry official said on Wednesday. Prime Minister Sushil Koirala feared that the death toll could reach 10,000, as information on damage from far-flung villages and towns is yet to come in. Many thousands were injured and the United Nations estimates that 8 million people have been affected by Nepal's worst natural disaster in eight decades. Homily hint: Earthquakes are a frightening but inevitable part of life, beyond our power to control. However, building standards are something we can control, and it is time that nations in earthquake prone areas of the world adopt and enforce stringent quake resistant standards for all structures and allocate the resources needed to make that happen. No one should die from shoddy construction, as far too many have in Nepal and elsewhere. Remember, we are called to be “our brother’s keeper.” For more on the Nepal earthquake, see: In pics: 5,500 killed, more than 1/4th of Nepal's population affected after horrific earthquake

earthquake nepal natural disasters social responsibility

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