Midwesterners accustomed to dealing with snow, sleet and ice have readied themselves for a monster winter storm that could be bigger than many cities in the nation’s midsection have seen in years.
As the storm began its trek across the Midwest, it brought a bit of everything: ice, sleet and snow — even tornadoes were possible. School districts, universities and legislatures closed; airlines canceled thousands of flights; and residents rushed to gather supplies, anticipating they might have to dig out or hunker down.
“I’ve never seen a prediction of what have you — rain, snow, ice, whatever — where people reacted so quickly to it,” Jack Runyon, co-owner of Runyon Equipment Rental in Carmel, Ind.
Cities including St. Louis, Kansas City and Milwaukee could be hardest hit, with expected midweek snowfalls of up to 2 feet and drifts piled 5 to 10 feet. Even hardy Chicago could be in for its third-worst blizzard since record-keeping began, with forecasts calling for up to 20 inches of snow in the city and waves whipping off Lake Michigan.
“`Freaking out’ is a great way of putting it,” St Louis resident Steve Edele said. “The icing — that’s what scares people.”
Severe weather conditions were already reported in several parts of Kansas and Minnesota. In Arkansas, communities anticipated lesser snow totals, but the weather service warned severe thunderstorms could generate freezing rain, hail and isolated tornadoes.
After burying the Midwest, the storm was expected to sweep into the Northeast, parts of which already are on track for record snowfall this winter.
Source; Associated Press
Australia evacuated thousands of people from its northeast coast on Tuesday as a cyclone rivaling Hurricane Katrina bore down on tourism towns and rural communities, with officials saying it could even threaten areas deep inland that were ruined by floods last month.
Mines, rail lines and coal ports were closed in Queensland state as Cyclone Yasi headed toward the coast. Up to a third of Australia’s sugar crop was also under threat, officials said.
“This storm is huge and life threatening,” Queensland Premier Anna Bligh said, warning the system was intensifying and picking up speed on its path from the Coral Sea, with destructive winds expected on Wednesday morning.
Cyclone Yasi is expected to generate winds of up to 280 kph (175 mph) when it hits the northern coast of tropical Queensland state early on Thursday, matching the strength of Katrina, which devastated New Orleans in 2005.
With a strong monsoon feeding Yasi’s 650 km (400 mile) wide front, the storm was also expected to maintain its intensity long after smashing into the coast and could sweep inland as far as the outback mining city of Mt Isa, 900 km (600 miles) inland.
Satellite radar images showed Yasi as a massive storm covering almost the entire Coral Sea and moving toward Australia from near Vanuatu. A sugar industry official said it could threaten about a third of the state’s sugar cane crop.
Source; Yahoo News
My comments;
Luke 21: 25-26 says that just before the return of Christ;
There will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth dismay among nations, in perplexity at the roaring of the sea and the waves, men fainting from fear and the expectation of the things which are coming upon the world; for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.
Romans 8:22 says;
For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now.
The earth itself is bucking and heaving under the terrible accumulated weight of human sin and lawlessness.
How long will the Church continue to ignore the signs that the One who created this earth is, in His mercy, sending us to wake us up to what He’s doing and what we need to do to get in line with His Will?
II Peter 3: 1-4;
This second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you; in both which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance: That ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us the apostles of the Lord and Saviour: Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.
The time is short and growing shorter. Do not be one of those who regrets. Pray to receive the free gift of salvation and hope from the only One who can provide it, Yeshua Ha’Mashiach (Jesus Christ)
John 14:6;
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.
Written by Aaron
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