The Flood
Taiwan sees a dozen typhoons this time of the year, but a recent tropical storm that hit the southern region last week on August the 4th caught everyone by surprise. Yesterday’s news report estimates the death toll at 500 due to extreme flooding and mudslides burying whole villages. The international media refer to the storm as “Typhoon Morakot”, but the locals in Taiwan know it by another name. They call it “Devil Typhoon”.
What was unusual about Typhoon Marakot was not the intensity of the rain, but its length. Three to four days of sustained rainfall resulted in flood levels reaching 2.5 meters. Worldwide, the typhoon affected tens of thousands in Japan and the Philippines, 1.5 million in Taiwan and 11 million people in eastern China.
Today we read the biblical account of a deluge that lasted not 4 days but 40 days and 40 nights. It was a flood which waters reached not roof tops but mountain peaks. In Genesis 7 we read the account of the flood and Noah’s ark.
In case you think this is just a story or a myth. Let me start by saying that accounts of the flood exist in just about every single culture, nation and religion. In India, Malaysia, Indonesia and Australia, in China, Europe and the Americas – civilizations the world over have some form of a great flood recorded in legend, scripture and history.
