Displaying items by tag: Earthquakes

6 February was the anniversary of two earthquakes that brought mass destruction to south Türkiye and northwest Syria, with over 50,000 lives lost. There were 1.7 million people in Hatay province, home to Türkiye’s largest Christian community; now there are only 250,000, as residents have moved to stay with relatives or find shelter elsewhere. A SAT-7 team who revisited the area found many who stayed living in ‘cities’ of container units. Rebuilding is under way, but the pace is slow and the task colossal. Although destruction was less widespread in Syria, many factors are preventing recovery. After twelve years of conflict, over four million people in the area were in need of humanitarian aid even before the quakes struck. Government corruption, international sanctions, and a collapse in the value of the Syrian currency have compounded the problem. The Bishop of Aleppo, Magar Ashkarian, said that although the earthquake had increased Christian migration abroad, denominations have come closer: ‘We live together in a very close relationship and try to help entirely without discrimination’.

A 6.3 magnitude earthquake has struck western Afghanistan, four days after a series of deadly quakes left at least a thousand people dead. This second earthquake struck an area near Herat early on 10 October. There are conflicting reports about the number of casualties: one spokesperson reported at least 120 injured. It flattened all 700 homes in Chahak village, which was untouched by Saturday’s quakes. Rescue workers and volunteers have been working around the clock to try to dig out survivors and bodies from the ruins of the villages since the weekend. Relief efforts have been hampered by poor infrastructure in the impoverished country, following decades of war and a decline in foreign aid.

Scammers are using Turkey and Syria’s earthquakes to trick people into donating to fake causes. These scams claim to raise money for survivors, but instead they channel donations away from real charities into their own PayPal accounts. One of over a hundred recently created fundraisers for Turkey is TurkeyRelief, which joined Twitter and touts for donations. Its PayPal account has received US$900, but that includes $500 from the page’s creator, who donated to their own cause to make them appear authentic. On TikTok Live, content creators make money by receiving digital gifts. TikTok livestreams show photos with sound effects and ask for donations. One video shows a distressed child running from an explosion. Their plea for TikTok gifts is ‘Please help achieve this goal’. But the photo of the child is not from Turkey. The same image was on Twitter in 2018 with the caption ‘Stop African Genocide’.

At the time of writing there are 19,300 dead after earthquakes hit Turkey and Syria. Rescuers are running out of time to find people alive under the rubble. The death toll will far exceed 20,000, and without shelter, water, fuel or electricity many survivors could yet lose their lives in a secondary disaster causing more harm than the initial quake. Survivors could face danger inside fragile structures amid aftershocks or freeze outside in the snow. Numerous regions await help which it is impossible to provide on the scale needed. Syrian rebel-held areas have even less access to medical care and supplies. The first UN aid lorries have arrived. Pray for more medical equipment, warm clothes, blankets, field hospitals, hundreds more volunteers, medical professionals and search and rescue professionals. Ask God to strengthen those working tirelessly to help. Pray for urgent donations to purchase tents, beds, medical equipment and gas heaters. For an update see

Lava from the Cumbre Vieja volcano, which has been erupting for four weeks, has destroyed even more homes and buildings. The two new vents that opened last week have partially collapsed, causing lava to flow in multiple directions. The local airport was closed again for two days and 800 more homes were evacuated as rapid flows of molten lava moved towards them, bursting homes into flames. There were 64 more seismic movements recorded, the strongest measuring 4.1. There are no signs of eruptions and earthquakes stopping soon. Over 1,100 buildings and 600 hectares of land had been destroyed by 13 October, and the next day the lava flows expanded again with even more evacuations ordered in three more areas.

Please call on the Lord for his intervention in the swarms of locusts that are growing and devouring farms in Africa, now spreading to the Middle East and China. (See). Pray for the hundreds of thousands forced to evacuate their homes after unusual flooding has devastated Australia, Southern USA, Bolivia, Peru, Indonesia and parts of the UK. (See) Over the past two months seismic activity has been rising. Last week a 7.7 quake struck off the coast of Jamaica shaking people as far away as Miami and Mount Merapi in Indonesia erupted launching lava and ash 2,000 metres into the sky, forcing residents to flee to a 1.8 mile designated no-go zone. (See) Pray for peace of mind for those living near seismic activity. Coronavirus infections continue to rise but less media coverage has been given to the highly contagious H1N1 virus that claimed 13 lives in one week in Taiwan (See)

Of the 12 disaster-prone cities in the world, ten are in the Philippines. It is not a matter of ‘if,’ but ‘when’ that typhoon or earthquake will come, as happened recently. The devastation and the intensity of these are what are so unique. Hundreds have died and over 1,000 are displaced and lost. Then came Tropical Storm Nakri, which developed into a typhoon. The epicentre of the deadly quakes was near Mindanao, where World Mission minister. There is a great humanitarian effort going on right now, with local churches responding with food, shelter, and clothing - all in the love of Jesus. Previously there had been hostility to the Gospel in this region, with some areas hosting IS training camps. However when these disasters strike,it definitely creates a wide-open door for the Gospel, as the churches’ help is well-received. The Philippines get about two thousand earthquakes a year.

On 17 June buildings collapsed, trapping people underneath in a 6.0 magnitude earthquake in the south-west Chinese province of Sichuan. Thirteen people have died so far, and 4,000+ people have been relocated from damaged and destroyed homes. Landslides damaged major roads. Over 500 firefighters were deployed to the area, and rescue teams are bringing in 5,000 tents, 10,000 folding cots, and other supplies. See  Earlier this year a thousand residents gathered outside government buildings in Sichuan province, blaming recent earthquakes on shale gas exploration in the area. The county subsequently suspended fracking operations. The Seismological Society of America attributed a 5.7 quake in December 2018 and a 5.3 quake in January 2019 to fracking activities in the region. Quake-prone Sichuan has extensive fracking operations, accounting for about a third of China's total shale gas production. Chinese geologists said that over-development of hydropower resources has undermined the seismic stability of Sichuan. Some blame the 2008 catastrophic earthquake on large-scale damming.

Fracking company Cuadrilla has requested an urgent review of existing earthquake safety levels, hoping that the permission to generate larger tremors will allow them to extract greater quantities of shale gas from Lancashire. Currently they must suspend drilling when quakes measuring over 0.5 magnitude are detected. Although numerous legal challenges and protests were not enough to prevent the company from beginning exploratory drilling at Preston last year, it is now the government’s ‘traffic light system’ for seismic activity which the industry appears to consider the greatest threat to its survival. There is a ‘rich reservoir of recoverable high quality natural gas present’, but the seismic operating limit remains a barrier to developing its potential. David Attenborough and others believe that the Government should stop wasting time on this polluting industry and back the clean energy infrastructure needed to tackle climate change.

Mount Etna volcano is restless, with small earthquakes and steam emissions continuing for six days. Aerial footage by emergency services has revealed the scale of the damage from the two earthquakes (4.3 and 4.8 magnitude) which injured 28 people and left 600 homeless across a broad area near Catania, one of the most densely populated metropolitan districts in Sicily. More lava was being spewed out on 1 January: see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E42VCLuJC4I Strong gas and dense ash emissions have been rising, prompting frightened villagers to flee their homes. Italy's civil protection officials said that the quakes were part of a swarm of 1,000 tremors, most of them barely perceptible, that are linked to Etna's ongoing recent eruption.