This chapter describes the most terrible destruction that had ever occurred on the western hemisphere.
Nephi wants to be absolutely certain of the date when this occurred. He says the three days of destruction began on exactly the fourth day of the first month of the thirty-fourth year according to the Nephite calendar. In any event, the fact that the Nephite calendar had already indicated that the thirty-third year had ended four days earlier caused an uproar among the apostate-minded people because the signs had not yet begun. Nevertheless once the signs began, they descended on the western hemisphere in an overwhelming catastrophe.
The destruction began with a great storm that moved across the face of the whole land with devastating force.