DEADLY STORM HITS CENTRAL AMERICA

POWERFUL TROPICAL STORM STRIKES
GUATEMALA, MEXICO AND EL SALVADOR

GUATEMALA (CNN) - Tropical Depression Agatha unleashed torrential rains over Guatemala, southeast Mexico and much of El Salvador, triggering flash floods and mudslides. A powerful tropical storm has struck Guatemala, bringing torrential rains that have added to the disruption caused by an erupting volcano. Agatha, the season's first tropical storm, has killed at least 12 people and left 11 people missing, as rain, mudslides and floods forced more than 3,000 people to flee their homes, officials have said. Four children were buried in a landslide outside Guatemala City, and four adults were killed in the capital itself. Another two children and two adults were killed when a boulder, dislodged by heavy rains, crushed a house in the department of Quetzaltenango. Guatemala is already under a 15-day state of calamity because of the eruption on Thursday of the Pacaya volcano, which killed at least three people and at least 1,800 people were already evacuated to shelters.

The volcano had shut down the capital's international airport. The torrential rains are complicating efforts to clear up ash from the Pacaya Volcano, which began erupting on Thursday, covering Guatemala City with ash and forcing the closure of the capital's international airport. Agatha - the first named storm of the Pacific Hurricane season - is expected to dump at least 75cm of rain on Guatemala, as well as El Salvador and southeastern Mexico. According to the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami, Florida, the storm was moving northeast about 5 mph (7 kph) and was forecast to weaken as it moved farther inland over high terrain in Central America. Tropical storm winds extended outward up to 80 miles (130 km) primarily over water to the southeast of the center, the center added.



Floods caused by tropical storm "Agatha" produce flooding, landslides that destroyed houses and blocked traffic on roads. The terrible force of nature is one of the clearest signs of this age of Kali, therefore we should reflect on the reasons behind such natural disasters.

WHAT DO THE VEDIC TEACHINGS TELL US?

Natural calamities are a display of an awesome power immensely and fearfully greater than the human. They jolt us out of our complacent routines and force us to think about the supernatural: Why do such natural disasters occur? ... All the great spiritual and religious traditions of the world warn us that we are answerable to God for all our actions. Known as the law of karma, this universal, infallible law of action-reaction gives all of us our due pleasures and pains as per our actions, right or wrong. ... We can protect ourselves from our past misdeeds by re-harmonizing ourselves with God. This can be very easily and effectively done by adopting the non-sectarian universal meditation on the Holy Names of God, especially the maha-mantra Hare Krishna.

Caitanya Caran das (BE E&TC) :
“When Nature Boomerangs”
The Spiritual Scientist - Vol. 3 - Issue 13
Bhaktivedanta Academy for Culture and Education (BACE), Pune
http://thespiritualscientist.com/