[Adapted from Sent To Earth]
There were any number of scenarios for future U.S. events but a most frightening one was the most obvious and that was in Florida.
For decades the state had been in a quiet hurricane cycle and in that time the population had exploded.
Apartments, condos, boutiques, hotels, resorts, plazas, and gated communities — the richest of the rich — now stood along the shore like bowling pins.
Less than fifteen percent of the residents had experienced a strong category-four or five storm, and the state was overwhelmed with newcomers. On average 770 were moving there each day, and most were locating on the coasts!
The odds told the story; only God could prevent the kind of disaster that was being sown.
If not this time, if not this year, the next.
A category-five was expected within 75 miles of Miami every thirty-two years, and it had been more than twice that — nearly eighty — since the most powerful hurricane on record to hit the U.S. wiped out Islamorada in the Keys.
Andrew had been a category-four, and had it not missed Miami (which it did of course by a hair), it would have destroyed an estimated one hundred hospitals, 125,000 businesses, and 225,000 homes.
Miami was currently in the midst of its biggest building boom ever.
And directly across the state stood the luxurious abodes in places like Naples.
Officials told me entire counties — especially Collier — could find themselves under water in a major hurricane, not even cat-five, if it was a direct hit. At the National Hurricane Center, officials outright told me that allowing construction on barrier islands — as was the case up and down the state — was ludicrous.
For decades the Lord had kept hurricanes away. In St. Augustine was the “Hurricane Lady” — a statue of Mary prayed in front of when storms approached. In Key West, an entire shrine was dedicated to Mary’s storm protection, and thus far had worked!
But was it now a new time? Would God’s Mercy continue, at least for a while, or would the hammer fall?
[resources: Sent To Earth and Michael Brown retreat: Omaha; Roslyn, Long Island to be announced for November]
[photo at top, NBC News, South Florida]