Flooding in Eastern Europe an “Apocalypse”

While forest fires rage on multiple continents, eastern Europe is being devastated by flooding. As one sixteen-year-old said after observing the devastation in the Polish town of Ladek Zdroj, “It’s a city like in an apocalypse.... It’s a ghost town” (Reuters, September 16, 2024).

Tens of thousands of people across Romania, Poland, and the Czech Republic have been directed to evacuate as torrential rains cause rivers to rise and flood surrounding areas. In the Czech town of Litovel, 70 percent of the town was submerged by a meter of water. “In the northeastern Czech city of Ostrava, a broken barrier on the Odra river at its confluence with the Opava river caused flooding of the city’s industrial area including the BorsodChem chemical plant, coking plant OKK Koksovny and others.” Poland is setting aside a billion zlotys ($260 million) for rebuilding and is asking the EU for additional funds. A fearful 70-year-old from the Czech Republic exclaimed, “Armageddon.... It literally ripped out everything because we don’t have a single bridge. In Ladek, all bridges have disappeared. We are practically cut off from the world.”

Dense populations residing in low-lying areas, poor building codes, changing weather patterns, and saturated soil have combined to produce this severe devastation. As people around the globe suffer from natural disasters, Christians should beseech God to send His Son quickly, bringing His Kingdom of peace! That will be a time when homes and cities will no longer be subject to seemingly random destruction due to catastrophic weather, and people will dwell “in a peaceful habitation, in secure dwellings, and in quiet resting places” (Isaiah 32:18). To gain a biblical perspective on the role of weather in world events, read Acts of God: Why Natural Disasters?