Working for Schoenstatt saved his life
A heaven-sent moment on the day of the Costa Rican earthquake
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Terremoto en Costa Rica. El epicentro del fenómeno telúrico fue situado en San Pedro de Poás Earthquake
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Erdbeben in Costa Rica; das Epizentrum war in der kleinen Stadt San Pedro de Poás |
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El Volcano Poás The Poás Volcano Der Vulkan Poás Fotos: Archiv © 2009 |
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COSTA RICA, mkf. Yesterday, Costa Rica awoke to a day of national mourning in honour of the victims who died in the earthquake that shook the nation on 8 January and resulted in damages estimated at 100 million dollars. The country will hold five days of national mourning. According to the National Emergency Commission, about 20 people died in the earthquake and 85 people have been reported missing. In addition to this, some 128,000 people in the country’s central region were affected in some way. The epicentre of the earthquake was in San Pedro de Poás – 6 kilometres east of the volcano bearing the same name – which suffered extensive environmental damage. In the midst of all this pain, there were also heaven-sent moments, such as the one experienced by Manuel Emilio Montero Anderson.
He tells us that strong tremors were even felt in the capital.
The epicentre was located in Vara Blanca, very close to the Poás volcano and the number of deaths is not yet known because of the number of missing people, collapsed buildings and landslides. Unfortunately, the area is a tourist attraction and it is feared that many buses and cars are lying below the destroyed buildings and landslides. Almost 16 kilometres of highway disappeared when the mountainside collapsed or was buried beneath the landslides. It is, therefore, feared that many people may have been trapped here.
To show how our Blessed Mother works, one of our Movement friends, who owns a property precisely where the epicentre occurred, was with me in his office discussing our Blessed Mother and the movement at the time of the earthquake. Because of this and the graces she showers over us, our discussion ran later than we expected and we did not go to lunch at the main house a few metres away. The earthquake took place at the time when we should have been eating our lunch at the house.
The house where I always ate lunch was destroyed by the earthquake, but the office in which we were only suffered minor damages. If our discussion about our Blessed Mother had not delayed us, we would have been eating lunch at the house which collapsed and who knows if I would be here telling this story.
Translation: Celina Garza, San Antonio, TX, USA