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Home > Fellowship Plaza Apt. A202 |
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In 120 years.
Out of all the 33 years I had lived in California (other 4 years I had resided in New Jersey after I had moved to the United States around 1980) there was never this severe case of rain coming down. Most of the rain measurement was twice that of what the average was from the past year. This year alone the amount of snow that had come down was twice as much as of other past snowfall. Apparently the weather forecast was set to be raining all week, so I knew the amount of snowfall was going to be large. The measurement of snow that would supposedly come was to be 20 feet or more, so it was hard to imagine.
About an hour’s drive away southwest is the city of Santa Cruz. It’s city by the California shoreline. Travel through the whiny, dangerous highway (highway 17) and after the Summit, there is a large lake (Lexington Reservoir). When I first arrived in United States, the lake was usually filled blue with water. However after several years of severe drought, the lake had become barren and cracked like a back of a tortoise. However, after all the rain from January the lake had become filled and dangerously overflowing, so in the news I heard that the lake was releasing its waters, along with the other many reservoirs all throughout California. It was such great news to hear, as water is not only used for drinking, but also the bloodline that is needed for many large acres and acres of farms in the San Joaquin Valley area (Mid-Peninsula farms), and many factories.
Apparently in February particular, the amount of rain that was downed has surpassed the previous record 120 years ago. Unfortunately, when the weather is dry, it stays dry for while and when it rains, it’s a downpour. Especially on days when it was stormy, many large trees had become uprooted and damaged many properties and vehicles like. Where the trees have fallen, it causes a major traffic backup, and with the wet roads, it causes many contact crashes. Some of the higher mountain roads were closed due to the severe snowfall. Even worse, with the downpour the roads have become soft and collapse and landslides would also block paths. Sometimes a tree would fall into a power line and cause outages. Apparently, there were many spots in the state of California that had suffered catastrophic blackouts dude to the storm.
One of the sad realities is, the areas where the land elevation is low, or live nearby major creeks or rivers suffer from flooding. With the sudden rise of water level, entire neighborhoods would become flooded and ruining the house. The cars would be flooded so badly that the roof is barely visible as well – many people would be stuck and cut off from the outside world and suffer from that.
Whenever I see the news about flood happening it is such a sad thing to see, but this news in particular told about a female student (18 years old?) who was driving when her car slipped and fell into a river nearby. Her car was not visible for many days. The reason was because of the swollen river from the heavy downpour had caused the car to be pushed the crushed car somewhere else instead. This was many days after the tragic event.
While I am writing this (February 6th, Monday) the forecast is set to rain till Friday.
God was the one who provided us the sweet rain. It did not matter the righteous or wicked, drinking water and fresh breathe of air, and food to eat are all provided by Him. While living in this state, I felt that despite the church going rate being all time low, the state which is mostly worldly views, materialistic, mammonism, and self-centered, God still loves us and still has not forgotten this God-Forsaken state.
Up till last year, due to the severe drought, using water for grass was forbidden (made into a law). Many houses grass had become yellow and dead. Many people had felt and experienced this suffering. However, when a situation or circumstances becomes better, they forget about all the sufferings they had.
Looking at the Old Testament, many a times when the Israelites passed through the Wilderness, they had complained at God numerous times in impatience. Because of the sufferings and doubting if they will ever make it to the “Promised Land” and they suffered bad consequences from that.
As the 120 year record of rain in February was refreshed, I hope the faith and thanks in God would be refreshed by the people here again. Apparently there is always a spiritual movement happening once every 100 years or so or I read, I hope that the next time such thing happens, there is a bearing of fruit from that.
(February 6th, 2017)
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Wonderous New Records 
In 120 years.