Severe Flooding in Chile's Desert

Late last month unusual rains hit Chile’s arid region, causing widespread flooding. “The downpour began… in the Atacama region, home to the world’s most arid desert, and lashed the area for hours, turning riverbeds that had been dry for years into torrents” (AFP, March 26, 2015). “President Michelle Bachelet said the downpour—equivalent to at least 10 times the previously drought-hit region’s average annual rainfall—had caught authorities off-guard.” (ibid.). “The interior ministry declared a state of emergency… and invoked a constitutional clause transferring power from the regional government to the military” (ibid.). The death toll from the flooding was 23, with 57 people missing, and over 22,000 displaced (NDTV.com, April 1, 2015). 

One sobering aspect of severe flooding in this extremely dry region of the world is that it comes as other traditionally fertile regions, like California, are in extreme drought. However, this phenomenon actually parallels a Bible prophecy in Amos which states “I also withheld rain from you, when there were still three months to the harvest. I made it rain on one city, I withheld rain from another city. One part was rained upon, and where it did not rain the part withered” (Amos 4:7). These weather extremes were predicted thousands of years ago in the Bible and are signs of the coming “end of the age.”

For more insight into coming weather events around the globe, watch our telecast “God Controls the Weather.”