How to Shepherd in the Aftermath of a Disaster

Following any disaster, pastors find there are spiritual and emotional needs of persons in their community who may have experienced life-changing disaster, as well as the needs of the church itself. How we shepherd through these times will have both immediate and lasting impact in people’s lives. Read More

The region in which I live is prone to high winds, tornadoes, flooding, ice storms, and earthquakes. Most of the tremors are relatively mild and scientists are divided on whether the New Madrid Fault is due for a major earthquake. The most recent earth quake was on September 17, was magnitude 2.5, and was 4 miles north of Steele, Missouri. The last major earth quakes in the region were a series of three earth quakes in 1811-1812 and their aftershocks. The first of these earth quakes and its aftershock was most powerful earthquakes to hit the contiguous United States east of the Rocky Mountains in recorded history. They were so violent that the region's inhabitants believed that it was the end of the world. Here is one eye witness account:

"On the 16th of December, 1811, about two o'clock, a.m., we were visited by a violent shock of an earthquake, accompanied by a very awful noise resembling loud but distant thunder, but more hoarse and vibrating, which was followed in a few minutes by the complete saturation of the atmosphere, with sulphurious vapor, causing total darkness. The screams of the affrighted inhabitants running to and fro, not knowing where to go, or what to do—the cries of the fowls and beasts of every species—the cracking of trees falling, and the roaring of the Mississippi— the current of which was retrograde for a few minutes, owing as is supposed, to an irruption in its bed— formed a scene truly horrible."