Are you ready for 2012?

[CWH]

One of the worst July I have ecountered:

http://news.sky.com/story/960213/jap...to-flee-floods

Japan: Quarter Of A Million To Flee Floods
Deadly flooding and landslides as hundreds of thousands are ordered to evacuate their homes following days of heavy rainfall.4:02pm UK, Saturday 14 July 2012
Rescue workers pictured during flooding in Japan
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At least 230,000 people in southern Japan have been ordered to evacuate their homes following deadly floods caused by torrential rain.

Twenty people have been killed and eight others are missing after flooding and landslides which have destroyed more than 2,600 houses across Fukuoka, Oita, Kumamoto and Saga prefecture and affected 86,000 households.

The majority of those ordered to evacuate - almost 200,000 - were in Fukuoka prefecture and Japan's self-defence force has been brought in to help.

Over 800mm of rain fell in Kumamoto prefecture over three days, affecting more than 600 properties.

And mudslides buried three people in Yame city, Fukuoka prefecture, according to reports.

Japanese media said two of the three have been rescued but an 83-year-old woman was missing.

Military trucks have taken residents to school gyms which are being used as evacuation centres.

"What is going on? I've never experienced this in my life," said an evacuee who had to seek refuge in a gym in Oita Prefecture.

May God Bless Japan.

[CWH]

Are you ready for the high food prices and long drought this year? Is the 3rd seal of Revelation starting soon? Better be prepared with the long drought in the US and the floods in Asia:

World braced for new food crisis
The News - Disaster Preparedness
July 20, 2012

The world is facing a new food crisis as the worst US drought in more than 50 years pushes agricultural commodity prices to record highs.
Corn and soyabean prices surged to record highs on Thursday, surpassing the peaks of the 2007-08 crisis that sparked food riots in more than 30 countries. Wheat prices are not yet at record levels but have rallied more than 50 per cent in five weeks, exceeding prices reached in the wake of Russia’s 2010 export ban.

The drought in the US, which supplies nearly half the world’s exports of corn and much of its soyabeans and wheat, will reverberate well beyond its borders, affecting consumers from Egypt to China. [FT]

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US forecast: Hot, dry weather to linger into fall
The News - Climate-Environment
July 20, 2012

The unusually hot dry weather that has gripped the nation will not let up its stranglehold over the next few months, federal weather forecasters said Thursday.
And that means the heartland's "flash drought" will linger at least until around Halloween and even spread a bit farther north and east.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's outlook for August through October shows that nearly every state likely will have hotter than normal temperatures. Much of the Midwest is likely to be drier than normal, too.

May God Bless us with reasonable food prices and good weather.

[CWH]

At least a hundred dead now and thousands affected in the huge flood in China:

Chinese furious at flood response
Published: 23/07/2012 at 08:07 PMOnline news: Tweet
Beijing residents expressed fury on Monday after the worst rains to hit the Chinese capital in more than 60 years left at least 37 people dead, with another seven still missing.

By Monday morning, nearly nine million users of China's popular Sina Weibo microblog had expressed anger over insufficient official warnings, and at the way the city's outdated drains failed to cope.

"If the drainage system had been good, if the warning system had been put in place in a timely manner, if people had been told to stay home, would so many people have lost their cherished lives?" posted one, named Bijiexiang.

At least 25 people drowned in Saturday's rains, the heaviest in the city since records began in 1951. Six died in housing collapses, five were electrocuted and one person was struck by lighting.

The same storm left another 15 people dead and 19 missing in the neighbouring province of Hebei, the China News Service said.

The rains and flooding caused 10 billion yuan-worth ($1.6 billion) of damage in Beijing, while nearly 66,000 people had to be evacuated from their homes, state media said, citing the city government.

"Chinese cities are apparently unpractised in facing disasters such as Saturday's torrential downpour," the Global Times daily said in a Monday editorial critical of the authorities' disaster preparedness.

"If so much chaos can be triggered in Beijing, the capital of the nation, problems in urban infrastructure of many other places can only be worse."

Pictures showed entire parking lots flooded, while rescue and traffic workers were seen diving underwater to unclog roadside drains as helpless drivers looked on from partially submerged cars.

Many roads in the capital were inundated by up to a metre (three feet) of water, while 500 outbound flights were cancelled and at least 80,000 passengers stranded.

Parts of the Beijing-Guangdong highway, a major arterial route to the south, remained flooded on Monday, the Beijing traffic bureau said.

Much of Beijing's central drainage system dates from imperial times, including the moat around the Forbidden City and a waterway around the former city wall that empties into the centuries-old Grand Canal east of the capital.

The rain lasted for about 16 hours on Saturday and up to 46 centimetres (around 18 inches) fell on the outlying mountainous district of Fangshan, the official Xinhua news agency said.

Parts of it were devastated, including the popular Shidu scenic area where up to 10,000 tourists were stranded during the downpour, reports said.

Some state-run media focused on how the rains brought the city of more than 20 million people together, with police and traffic workers joining hands with ordinary citizens to rescue stranded motorists.

According to a Beijing television report, in the worst of the downpours ordinary motorists offered free rides to those who were stranded, including some of the 80,000 travellers stuck at the airport after flight cancellations.

Xinhua reported that the rains had filled Beijing's 17 major reservoirs, many of which had lacked water due to a 13-year drought.

But most web users took a more negative view.

"Beijing has been defeated by a huge rain storm, the city's infrastructure has failed, there is nothing here to be proud of," posted one on Sina Weibo, under the name Zhulidemixu.

Many microblog postings also expressed scepticism over the official death toll, saying the true figure was probably higher.

China's finance ministry has allocated 120 million yuan in relief funds to help Beijing, neighbouring Tianjin city and Hebei province handle the disaster.

Xinhua also said eight people were confirmed dead due to heavy downpours in Sichuan province, in the nation's southwest.

China is routinely ravaged by summertime flooding, which normally wreaks havoc in regions along the central Yangtze river and in the south.

May God Bless China.

[CWH]

In August 2012, we are seeing typhon rain lashing in the Philipines, North Korea, China, Taiwan causing floods and untold suffering to thousands and thousands of people in Asia. This is in contrast to the great drought in USA. Obviously, the climate is changing.

Six dead as Typhoon Saola lashes Taiwan

Friday, August 03, 2012

ILAN, Taiwan: Typhoon Saola pounded Taiwan with fierce winds and torrential rain that left six people dead and forced nearly the entire island to shut down on Thursday, rescuers and media said. Nearly 200 international and domestic flights were cancelled and authorities suspended trading on financial markets due to the extreme weather.

Two passenger boarding bridges collapsed at Taoyuan international airport, which serves Taipei and northern Taiwan, slightly damaging a China Airlines aircraft, airport officials said. The Taiwanese carrier was forced to scrap the flight bound for Japan, affecting more than 170 passengers, they said.

May God restore back normal climate.:pray:

[CWH]

In August 2012 again we are seeing earthquakes in Iran with a few hundreds dead and thousands of famlies affected. We also see great flood in the Philippines and China with millions affected and several death....and with more storms coming. TRheren is also the potential spread of diseases. What else is in store for August?

Iran ends quake rescue; mourning begins for dead
Mohammad Davari ARZAQAN, Iran — Agence France-Presse

Published Sunday, Aug. 12 2012, 9:27 AM EDT
Iran on Sunday wrapped up its rescue operations in hundreds of villages flattened by twin earthquakes a day earlier in its northwest, as officials gave a toll of 227 dead and 1,380 injured in the disaster.

“Search and rescue operations have ended and we are now working to ensure survivors’ needs in terms of shelter and food,” Interior Minister Moustafa Mohammad-Najjar told state television.

The first of the earthquakes on Saturday registered a strong 6.4 on the moment magnitude scale, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, which monitors seismic activity worldwide.

The second, almost as strong at 6.3 on the scale, rumbled through just 11 minutes later. Many smaller aftershocks followed.

While the biggest city in the region, Tabriz, and nearby towns escaped with only relatively minor damage, scores of outlying villages made of more flimsy mud and concrete bricks were decimated.

Mr. Mohammad-Najjar said around half the 600 villages located in the zone were damaged. Up to a dozen were completely razed.

He said that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had given orders on Sunday for home reconstruction to begin immediately because of the harsh winter the mountainous region will experience at the end of the year.

The region declared two days of mourning for the disaster.

An estimated 16,000 people remained homeless by the quakes or too afraid to return to cracked homes they feared unstable.

Iran’s Red Crescent distributed thousands of tents and supplies of food and water to get them through the days ahead.

It also said offers of help had been received from Turkey, Taiwan, Singapore and Germany, but they were turned down because Iran was able to cope with the disaster by itself.

The rapid end to the rescue operation highlighted the fact that in the villages residents knew each other well and knew where to look, and collapsed buildings were small.

But still there were many stories of tragedy.

Zeinab, a 13-year-old girl seen outside a Red Crescent tent in the village of Mirza Ali Kandi told AFP how she saw her eight-year-old brother and 16-year-old sister die before her eyes.

“I was outside my home playing when it (the first quake) happened. I ran inside looking for my brother and found him under a big pile of rubble. I tried to get him out. And then I heard my sister cry out and I turned and she has a big stone in her head, and I ran out,” she said, sobbing.

“I wish it had been me, too, I wish I hadn’t run out,” she yelled, prompting her uncle to try to console her.

Others were more fortunate.

“I was working on my farm, on my tractor, and I felt the earth shake and I was thrown off the vehicle,” a 40-year-old farmer in one hamlet, Qanbar Mehdizade, told AFP. His family, who had been working with him, survived.

AFP journalists in the zone saw many exhausted residents mourning their loved ones. Grieving women wailed over the bodies of the dead, many of whom were women and children.

“This village is a mass grave,” said Alireza Haidaree, an emergency worker who supervised a bulldozer working in the village of Baje Baj, where 33 of the 414 inhabitants died.

“There are so many other villages that have been completely destroyed,” he added.


Disease alert as Philippines flood toll jumps to 85 .
Published on Aug 12, 20120

A young boy leans against a concrete culvert structure in a muddy street after getting his share of food and other relief goods distribution on Saturday, Aug 11, 2012, in suburban Montalban town, east of Manila, Philippines. Officials said on Saturday they will mobilise thousands to clean up the Philippine capital in the wake of torrential monsoon rains and flooding as evacuees return to clear mud and debris that swamped their homes. -- PHOTO: AP
MANILA (AFP) - Emergency relief officials and doctors deployed to flood devastated communities in the Philippines on Sunday to prevent outbreaks of disease as the death toll jumped to 85.

The flooding that submerged 80 per cent of Manila early in the week has largely subsided but more than 150 towns and cities around the capital remain under water, affecting more than three million people.

Amid the ongoing relief operation, the weather bureau warned of a low pressure area developing some 850km to the east in the Pacific Ocean that could turn into a storm and bring more rain.

Many provinces around Manila remained inundated as overflowing dams continued to release water, the national disaster coordinating agency said. Relief workers were dealing with "clogged pipelines and trash everywhere. Sanitation has emerged as a key problem," Red Cross secretary general Gwendolyn Pang told AFP.

May God Bless the afflicted.

[Richard Amiel McGough]

In August 2012 again we are seeing earthquakes in Iran with a few hundreds dead and thousands of famlies affected. We also see great flood in the Philippines and China with millions affected and several death....and with more storms coming. TRheren is also the potential spread of diseases. What else is in store for August?

So what? People live, people die, yet the world continues to turn ...



Ecclesiastes 1:4 One generation passes away, and another generation comes; But the earth abides forever. 5 The sun also rises, and the sun goes down, And hastens to the place where it arose. 6 The wind goes toward the south, And turns around to the north; The wind whirls about continually, And comes again on its circuit. 7 All the rivers run into the sea, Yet the sea is not full; To the place from which the rivers come, There they return again. 8 All things are full of labor; Man cannot express it. The eye is not satisfied with seeing, Nor the ear filled with hearing. 9 That which has been is what will be, That which is done is what will be done, And there is nothing new under the sun. 10 Is there anything of which it may be said, "See, this is new"? It has already been in ancient times before us.

[CWH]

So what? People live, people die, yet the world continues to turn ...



Ecclesiastes 1:4 One generation passes away, and another generation comes; But the earth abides forever. 5 The sun also rises, and the sun goes down, And hastens to the place where it arose. 6 The wind goes toward the south, And turns around to the north; The wind whirls about continually, And comes again on its circuit. 7 All the rivers run into the sea, Yet the sea is not full; To the place from which the rivers come, There they return again. 8 All things are full of labor; Man cannot express it. The eye is not satisfied with seeing, Nor the ear filled with hearing. 9 That which has been is what will be, That which is done is what will be done, And there is nothing new under the sun. 10 Is there anything of which it may be said, "See, this is new"? It has already been in ancient times before us.

So what? I just don't see how some people's heart have turned so cold; they are indifference even if millions of people are suffering....not even a word of comfort or a prayer for those who suffered. Wait till disasters come to their hometown......

God Bless.

[CWH]

Hope Hurricane Isaac won't be as disastrous as Katrina after devastating Haiti. August 2012 have been a stormy month with floods in various places such as the Philippines, North Korea, Myanmar, China etc. causing sufferings to thousands. Seems like the East Coast of USA is about to face the brunt but I don't see Isaac as devastating as Katrina as the US is now more prepared.

New Orleans prepares for possible Hurricane Isaac
By Mira Oberman | AFP News – 10 hours ago

The people of New Orleans on Monday prepared themselves for yet another hurricane -- seven years after the fabled city of jazz was swamped by Hurricane Katrina, which left 1,800 dead.

President Barack Obama, no doubt mindful of the bungled handling of that tragedy by his predecessor George W. Bush, declared a state of emergency in Louisiana, allowing federal funds and aid to flow to local authorities.

The president also convened a briefing with officials including Federal Emergency Management Agency administrator (FEMA) Craig Fugate, hours before Tropical Storm Isaac was expected to become a Category One hurricane.

Katrina left behind a devastating sprawl of destruction and death when it hit New Orleans on August 29, 2005, and a halting emergency response from the Bush administration tainted his second term in office.

The National Hurricane Center (NHC) said in its 2100 GMT bulletin that Isaac was about 320 miles (515 kilometers) south-southeast of Mobile, Alabama and it was strengthening with sustained winds of 70 miles per hour.

A hurricane warning was issued earlier for New Orleans and nearby areas as Isaac churned toward the northern Gulf of Mexico coast, with the storm likely to reach hurricane force and make landfall on Tuesday.

Alabama governor Robert Bentley has ordered mandatory evacuations in Mobile and Baldwin, counties that sit on the Gulf Coast.

Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, who has recommended voluntary evacuations within the hurricane watch area, urged people to prepare for the worst.

"If you are in low lying areas and are thinking about evacuating, today is the day to do that," he said on Monday.

"If you plan on hunkering down at home, today is the day to get supplies. I strongly encourage people not to wait," added Jindal, who stayed away from the weather-affected Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida.

FEMA said its National Response Coordination Center had been activated and would handle eventual requests for aid from affected states.

The emergency management agency has also deployed four disaster response teams to Gulf states and has moved other resources to pre-positioned command locations closer to the potential storm impact areas.

Isaac has been moving slowly so far and was swirling in the Gulf of Mexico about 255 miles (415 kilometers) southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River, but the storm is beginning to gather pace, the Miami-based NHC said.

"Additional strengthening is forecast... and Isaac is expected to become a hurricane later tonight or early Tuesday," it added.

Dangerous surges in water levels could cause flooding on the coast, with the storm dumping up to 18 inches (46 centimeters) of rain on southeastern Louisiana, southern Alabama, Mississippi and the western Florida panhandle.

Mississippi activated 1,500 National Guard troops on Monday and Louisiana issued orders to approximately 4,100 soldiers and airmen in preparation of the storm making landfall. Florida called up only a few dozen service personnel.

Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama issued emergency warnings on Sunday, 24 hours after Isaac forced the main program of the Republican convention to be postponed by one day.

The NHC also warned that Isaac could spawn "isolated tornadoes" over central and southern Florida on Monday.

Katrina was the third deadliest US hurricane on record, destroying homes and instigating a human crisis in New Orleans, a city famed for music, an easygoing atmosphere and Creole cuisine.

Seven years ago, 1.4 million residents and visitors were ordered to evacuate New Orleans as Hurricane Katrina approached, but many could not or would not and were left stranded.

A lack of preparation forced residents to take shelter in attics, and then break through their roofs to escape rising water, but countless numbers died while the nation's leaders appeared to be unwilling to step in and help them.

Sunday's emergency declarations indicated the importance of official efforts to safeguard the city, as Isaac brought rain and choppy seas to the Florida Keys after battering Haiti, where 19 people died, and Cuba over the weekend.

May God Bless the weather.

[CWH]

Luckily, Hurricane Isaac is not as disastrous as Katrina but there are damages and sufferings:

Hurricane Isaac : Updates, Maps, News
The News - Natural Disasters
August 30, 2012

Dam break feared; 50,000+ ordered out...
UPDATE: Half of Louisiana loses power...
ISAAC STALLS, DUMPS 25+ INCHES OF RAIN...
New Orleans dodges direct blow...
... But looting hits city
ADVISORY... RADAR... SATELLITE... CAMS...

I heard a storm is devastating South Korea and one is threatening the Philippines. I also heard the greatest ice loss in the Artic this year will led to more powerful and devastating climatic disasters.

http://www.usatoday.com/weather/clim...nks/57349212/1

May God Bless the world's weather.

[CWH]

I am particularly interested in earthquakes that happens at about the same time at both ends of the earth as it may signal a major evolving earthquake. It is like a rubber band being stretched and released at one end and then counter-stretched and released at the other end since El Salvador and the Philippines are almost exactly at both ends of the globe. The earthquake actually started from a near similar earthquake in Sulawesi in Indonesia about 4 days before the earthquake in the Philippines. The earthquake with possible tsunami in El Salvador happened about 3 days before the earthquake in the Philippines. That means to say that the earthquake in Sulawesi likely caused the earthquake in the Philippines which then caused the earthquake in El Salvador. They are quite similar in nature. They are almost at the same strength at about 7.4 and about the same depth about 30 km. under the earth and both happened during the hurricane/typhoon season. They did not caused a tsunami or much damage. It is said that weather phenomena usually accompanies earthquakes. This is reasonable in the sense that varying high and low air pressure may affect the stability of the earth's crust. Luckily both earthquakes did not caused much damage or loss of life except for some panic and evacuation over possible tsunamis. This may be a precursor of a major earthquake with or without a tsunami, I hope I am wrong.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012...salvador-coast

http://news.yahoo.com/7-9-quake-off-...133821518.html

May God Prevent Earthquake disasters.