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GENEVA (AP) -- A senior official at the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says solar storms pose a growing threat to criticial infrastructure such as satellite communications, navigation systems and electrical transmission equipment. NOAA Assistant Secretary Kathryn Sullivan says the intensity of solar storms is expected to peak in 2013 and countries should prepare for "potentially devastating effects." Solar storms release particles that can temporarily disable or permanently destroy fragile computer circuits. Sullivan, a former NASA astronaut who in 1984 became the first woman to walk in space, told a U.N. weather conference in Geneva on Tuesday that "it...

Tornadoes continue to be in the news.  Two headlines screamed from the printed version of the Des Moines Register two weeks ago, after a huge swath of tornadoes devastated the town of Mapleton and surrounding area, without a soul being killed.  One gave credit to “being lucky”, the other cited “somebody” looking out for the townsfolk during the twister.  Monona County Sheriff was able to give credit to both in one sentence: "I believe in the good Lord, and he saved this town," Pratt said. "We were very lucky."  Pratt also rightly gave glory to the grace of God:  "Last...

President Obama, "heartbroken" by the unfolding tragedy in Japan, reiterated Monday that the United States stood ready to support its ally in the aftermath of Friday’s devastating earthquake and tsunami. "The United States will continue to offer any assistance we can as Japan continues to recover from multiple disasters," Obama said. His remarks came at a Virginia middle school, the latest event in what the White House has called "Education Month." The president used Monday’s event to call on Congress to reauthorize "No Child Left Behind" before the start of the next school year. "I want every child in the...

The RSQ Foundation was launched in 2010 in response to a growing global threat from natural disasters and extremists, terrorists and criminals who target vulnerable U.S. citizens in foreign countries ranging from Mexico and the Middle East to Europe and Asia. We are based in the United States, but our reach and effective sphere of operations is worldwide. Whether the increasing perils we face in this modern world are personal or public, local or regional, national or international, or if they are posed by governments, narco-terrorists or religious fanatics - indeed, whether these dangers are man-made or natural - the...

I know these things have been covered before but for our Quinn and Rose fans when I find some helpful links.etc...I like to share them.

GENEVA (AFP) – Climate scientists must urgently look into changes in atmospheric currents linked to devastating floods in Pakistan and wildfires in Russia, UN climate and weather bodies said on Wednesday. Ghassem Asrar, director of the World Climate Research Programme, told AFP that changes, known as blocking episodes, can prevent humidity or hot weather dispersing. That intensified heavy rain or heatwaves and locked them over an area, he explained, potentially with a growing impact on extreme weather events that scientists expect to happen more frequently with global warming. Asrar said that European researchers had modelled the blocking pattern in atmospheric...

Sen. Ted Stevens’ death in a small plane that crashed in a remote part of Alaska adds another sad chapter to the story of politicians who have died in airplane accidents over the past several decades. Stevens had already survived another plane crash in the state 1978 while his wife, Ann, died. The frequency of their travel, trips to often remote areas and the use of small, private planes make politicians much more likely victims of plane crashes. Here are others whose fatal crashes made headlines over the past few decades: • In 1972, a plane carrying then-House Majority Leader...

Russia, July 30 (Reuters) - Forest fires sweeping across central Russia have killed at least 23 people, officials said on Friday.

In a week during which Port au Prince is still in shambles and Chile is now in rubble and large swaths of America are buried in snow (No thanks to Al), clearly the most important issue in the world was Olympic athletes needing an emergency shipment of condoms.

Disasters - earthquake, Tsunami, others - happening rapidly now. Read Matthew 24. There will be earthquakes.....etc. When we see these events occurring in increasing frequency it is because these are the "birth pangs" that we have been told by Jesus Christ Himself - would happen closer together in time as do the birth pangs of a woman in labor. The closer she gets to giving birth, the worse the birth pangs become and the closer together they come.

By the end of today there will have been more fatalities in clean energy power plant accidents than nuclear in the US.

The earth shuddered. According to an American observer, "every Building rolled and jostled like a Ship at Sea; which put in Ruins almost every House, Church, and Publick Building, with an incredible Slaughter of the Inhabitants." Fires broke out all across the city, and the river rose 20 feet, breaking its banks and engulfing the lower elevations. It was Nov. 1, 1755, and without warning, Lisbon, capital of the Portuguese empire, became a wasteland. Earthquake, fire and flood left 15,000 people dead (reports at the time mistakenly put the number at 50,000); 17,000 of the city's 20,000 homes were destroyed....

HAITI-JUDGING, GOD'S JUDGMENTS & CHRISTIAN LOVE And yet, we have no right to claim that we know why a disaster like the earthquake in Haiti happened at just that place and at just that moment That depends. This exhortation from Scripture should give all of us pause about glib, surface, carnal, fleshy judgments of others: Luke 19:22 (Amplified Bible) 22He said to the servant, I will judge and condemn you out of your own mouth, you wicked slave! You knew [did you] that I was a stern (hard, severe) man, picking up what I did not lay down, and reaping...

Road Split in Homeland Security Bethany Stotts, December 8, 2009 Are Americans well-prepared to deal with megadisasters? And, if so, should disaster preparedness strategies focus on local implementation or central federal prescripts? These questions and others were raised at recent Heritage Foundation conference on “Homeland Security’s Wicked Problems.” Panelist Irwin Redlener, M.D., outlined what he saw as “four enduring barriers to having a prepared country,” which were a) “[V]ery, very little evidence of evidence-based policies;” b)“[A] phenomenal disconnect between what we need to do and what the money is available;” c) “[S]ystemic political paralysis;” and d) That “the civilian population...

– US army chief of staff General George Casey said Monday he wished to improve ties with China's military and would draft plans for a joint disaster relief exercise.

Yahoo ran an interesting article this morning indicating a rise in the number of survivalist communities cropping up around the country. I have been wondering myself how much of the recent energy crisis is causing people to do things like stockpile food and water, grow their own vegetables, etc. Could it be that there are many people out there stockpiling and their increased buying has caused food prices to increase? It’s an interesting theory, but I believe increased food prices have more to do with rising fuel prices as cost-to-market costs have increased and grocers are simply passing those increases...

VIDEO: "Disaster Preparedness From Ready.gov" VIDEO DESCRIPTION - Snippet: "Three steps on how to prepare for an emergency or disaster."

"Whenever we have a little earthquake or something happens, it always reminds us to remind our citizens - are you prepared?" ... Smith said the city's No. 1 priority is the safety of its citizens. He urged residents to consider "what if" scenarios in order to prepare for a disaster. ... "I'll tell you what: When you're thinking about those three things when the building starts to shake, it's too late. Because if you're not prepared before then, you won't be prepared for the catastrophe that you may be facing," he said. Metro said dealing with a catastrophic event has...

Safety Group Urges Airbus Fixes LOS ANGELES -- U.S. aviation safety watchdogs, concerned about severe electrical problems that have blacked out cockpit displays on dozens of Airbus jetliners over the years, urged regulators on both sides of the Atlantic to mandate aircraft fixes and enhanced pilot training to alleviate such hazards. Recommendations released by the National Transportation Safety Board Wednesday cite 49 incidents over the years in which electrical problems caused various cockpit displays on widely-used Airbus A319 and A320 to suddenly stop functioning and temporarily go blank during flight. According to the board, seven of those incidents resulted in...

At Fatima, Our Lady gave a basic message: conversion or chastisement. Conversion is not happening, and we are living in a moral crisis that is a real chastisement. But we are also experiencing a chastisement in the form of natural disasters. The disasters are also invitations to conversions. St. Alphonsus Liguori, tells us how God uses natural calamities such as floods, tornadoes, and earthquakes, to warn people to change their ways, rather than as punishments. He show proves that God uses these disasters to warn us to change our ways. Here are the facts: -- Mother's Day brought a devastating...

Why are there so many natural disasters during presidential election years? I predict with a high degree of confidence that this year, the nation will witness an unexpectedly large number of destructive acts of nature—floods of biblical proportions, out-of-control wildfires, destructive tornadoes, and bone-rattling earthquakes—that will require a prompt, compassionate, and expensive response from the federal government. No, I haven't just returned from a crash course in meteorology. Rather, I recently had lunch with Erwann Michel-Kerjan, an economist at the Wharton School who studies catastrophes. According to Michel-Kerjan, this uptick in natural disasters will likely have nothing to do with...

LONDON (AFP) - More than four times the number of natural disasters are occurring now than did two decades ago, British charity Oxfam said in a study Sunday that largely blamed global warming. "Oxfam... says that rising green house gas emissions are the major cause of weather-related disasters and must be tackled," the organisation said, adding that the world's poorest people were being hit the hardest. The world suffered about 120 natural disasters per year in the early 1980s, which compared with the current figure of about 500 per year, according to the report. "This year we have seen floods...

Pay No Attention To The Man Behind the Curtain We have all been exposed, over exposed, to the concept of “reality TV.” There seems to be no end to the variations on a theme when it comes to the embarrassing moments of Mr. and Ms. America starring in the latest version of life. Life, that is, as Hollywood sees it and as long as they can come up with something that will have some level of entertainment. With that said imagine if you will the realities that exist right in our daily lives but are hidden, not deliberately, from our...

Remember when Smokey the Bear was a hero to all of us? He reminded us to be careful with matches and campfires when in the forest, to prevent fires that would cost a lot of money, and often much worse, both for our furry forest friends and the humans trying to protect them. Just like the Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny, however, Smokey has become a dim recollection from our naive past while the mega-agency he once proudly represented has become the 900 pound gorilla, in many cases doing more harm than good. Wildland firefighting has become a major...

OTTAWA (CP) - After years of legal skirmishes, Canadians can finally hear the gripping soundtrack for one of the country's worst aviation disasters. The Swissair Flight 111 air traffic control tapes, kept under lock and key since the 1998 tragedy, have been released to The Canadian Press following a tortuous court battle that went all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada. The hours of recordings include 12 critical minutes, starting as the aircrew reports smoke in the cockpit and ending with a last desperate transmission as the aircraft nose dives at high speed into St. Margaret's Bay, N.S.,...

The idea of a great quake occurring along the San Andreas Fault that runs through the Antelope Valley is not a question of if, but rather, of when. Red Cross emergency preparation expert Bob Wood related ... expect a fissure about 30 feet across and an earth slippage that rises up a dozen or so feet.The last big area quake, he said, was in 1857, and the San Andreas has been pretty steady at making a major movement around every 140-year interval through historic geologic time. Instead, he advised, make preparations for smaller-scale catastrophes. Civil unrest, for example. Or big...

Last Thursday night/Friday morning, more than a million people in my region were plunged into darkness by one of the worst windstorms in modern Washington State history. Whole cities were still, dark and lifeless. Other than the drivers around me, not a single person was seen outside. The atmosphere was made all the more strange by the moaning of the wind through the power lines that bowed, dead and useless, from their poles. Huge old-growth trees were ripped from the ground by the thousands, blocking roads, demolishing houses, and killing drivers. And of course, I had to drive to work...

With a tropical storm threatening Florida and the one-year anniversary of Katrina approaching, CNN’s August 28 “American Morning” kicked off a weeklong look at “Red Tape and Rubble” in the Gulf Coast. But Ali Velshi’s first report in the series was unbalanced, treating insurance companies as guilty until proven innocent of greed or fraud. “We’re going to be there when you need us,” anchor Soledad O’Brien said is the promise insurance companies extend out to policy holders, “But many Katrina victims think uh, uh, that’s not true,” she complained. O’Brien set the stage for Velshi’s unbalanced report by painting insurance...

'More disasters' for warmer world A warmer world could make wildfires more frequent, research shows Rising temperatures will increase the risk of forest fires, droughts and flooding over the next two centuries, UK climate scientists have warned. Even if harmful emissions were cut now, many parts of the world would face a greater risk of natural disasters, a team from Bristol University said. The projections are based on data from more than 50 climate models looking at the impact of greenhouse gas emissions. The study appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The researchers gathered results from...

IN ancient Babylon, they knew from accountability. Under the Code of Hammurabi, "If a builder build a house for someone, and does not construct it properly, and the house which he built fall in and kill its owner, then that builder shall be put to death." What's more, "If it kill the son of the owner, the son of that builder shall be put to death." Engineers these days don't have that worry. Mistakes may carry legal penalties and a measure of shame. The people who die are those who depend on the engineers' work. Nearly 1,600 people died in...

It contains some of the most contaminated land in the world, yet it has become a haven for wildlife - a nature reserve in all but name. The exclusion zone around the Chernobyl nuclear power station is teeming with life. As humans were evacuated from the area 20 years ago, animals moved in. Existing populations multiplied and species not seen for decades, such as the lynx and eagle owl, began to return. There are even tantalising footprints of a bear, an animal that has not trodden in this part of Ukraine for centuries. "Animals don't seem to sense radiation and...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 23, 2006 – The federal response to Hurricane Katrina demonstrated that the Defense Department is one of the only federal departments capable of playing a critical role in the nation's response to catastrophic events, a government report released today stated. In September, President Bush asked Fran Townsend, his homeland security adviser, to conduct a review about the federal response to Katrina. The result is a report titled "The Federal Response to Hurricane Katrina: Lessons Learned," which outlines what was learned from the government's response to the hurricane and how to better prepare and respond to future domestic...

The Texas City Disaster was an accident but does illustrate quite well just how important it is to know who and what is sailing into our nation's ports. Of course, we all know that no one would ever use fertilizer to make an intentional explosion in this day and age... http://www.local1259iaff.org/disaster.html The morning of 16 April 1947 dawned clear and crisp, cooled by a brisk north wind. Just before 8:00 A.M., longshoremen removed the hatch covers on Hold 4 of the French Liberty ship Grandcamp as they prepared to load the remainder of a consignment of ammonium nitrate fertilizer. Some...

Size: Here’s a headline you aren’t likely to see: “Sago mine tragedy defies improved mine safety trend under the Bush administration.” Yet, the facts support it. Mining fatalities have dropped every year President Bush has been in the White House, according to the Mine Safety and Health Administration. Since 2001, mining deaths averaged 63 a year, which is 30% lower than during the Clinton administration. The fatality rate has dropped as well -- it was 31% lower in 2004 than it was in the last year of the Clinton administration. In fact, it was during the Clinton years that the...

Disasters: Searching for Lessons From a Bad Year John Bohannon No doubt about it, the 12 months since the last Breakthrough of the Year issue have been an annus horribilis. Three major natural disasters--the 2004 "Christmas tsunami" in the Indian Ocean, Hurricane Katrina on the U.S. Gulf Coast, and the Pakistan earthquake--left nearly 300,000 dead and millions homeless. In Pakistan, the disaster is still unfolding as winter engulfs the devastated communities. Insurance companies classify such events as "acts of God": misfortunes for which no one is at fault. But in their aftermath, many scientists are pointing out that natural disasters...

Earth might seem like a more active and dangerous place than ever, given the constant media reports of multiple natural disasters recently. But a broader view reveals that it's not Mother Nature who's changed, but we humans. Drawn by undeveloped land and fertile soil, people are flocking to disaster-prone regions. This creates a situation in which ordinary events like earthquakes and hurricanes become increasingly elevated to the level of natural disasters that reap heavy losses in human life and property. Meanwhile, in any given year, the death toll at the hands of Mother Nature varies greatly, as do the sorts...

Capitalism 'causes natural disasters' From: Agence France-Presse From correspondents in Caracas October 10, 2005 VENEZUELAN President Hugo Chavez has blamed global capitalism for earthquakes hitting India, Pakistan and Afghanistan as well as for mudslides that have struck Central America and Mexico. On his weekly radio and television call-in program, "Hello, Mr. President," Mr Chavez said these catastrophes were nature's answer to the "world global capitalist model". "This model is destroying the world. The world is in danger. Never has there been such disasters, hurricanes, droughts, torrential rains. Incredible! The world is dangerously off balance," he said. Earlier yesterday, US television...

BATON ROUGE, La. -- Louisiana's official death toll from Hurricane Katrina passed 1,000 on Friday. The state Department of Health and Hospitals reported that state officials and local coroners had recovered 1,003 bodies - 15 more than the total reported Thursday. The increase puts the death toll from the storm at 1,242. Katrina killed 221 people in Mississippi, 14 in Florida, two in Georgia and two in Alabama.

Government officials are evaluating and revising disaster plans around the United States in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, just as they did after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. While war and automobiles kill more people than nature, find out what natural disasters top scientists’ worry lists. #10 Pacific Northwest Megathrust Earthquake Geologists know it’s just a matter of time before another 9.0 or larger earthquake strikes somewhere between Northern California and Canada. The shaking would be locally catastrophic, but the biggest threat is the tsunami that would ensue from a fault line that’s seismically identical to the one that...

TAMPA Hillsborough County officials exerted their authority Tuesday, declaring they would be in charge if a hurricane or other disaster strikes. The message appeared to be aimed at Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio. "We are the entity that's in charge. We will exercise that duty," Hillsborough County Administrator Pat Bean said during a news conference at the county's Emergency Management Center on E. Hanna Avenue. Her remarks came a day after she canceled, for the second time in less than a week, a meeting with Iorio to discuss hurricane preparedness. Bean left open the possibility of a one-on-one meeting with Iorio...

Nothing lasts forever. Just ask Ozymandias, or Nate Fisher. Only the wind inhabits the cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde in Colorado, birds and vines the pyramids of the Maya. Sand and silence have swallowed the clamors of frankincense traders and camels in the old desert center of Ubar. Troy was buried for centuries before it was uncovered. Parts of the Great Library of Alexandria, center of learning in the ancient world, might be sleeping with the fishes, off Egypt's coast in the Mediterranean. "Cities rise and fall depending on what made them go in the first place," said Peirce Lewis,...

The New Orleans floodwaters have not yet receded, but the Monday morning quarterbacks are already taking the field to point their collective fingers in an attempt to score partisan points. The usual Democratic suspects rushed to the cameras and microphones to lash out at President Bush and federal agencies for a myriad of supposed failures: for ineptness in handling the catastrophe, for a fly-over instead of wading hip-deep in the mire, for merely "photo ops" in Mississippi, and for being "insensitive" to the victims, who were predominantly African-Americans. Notwithstanding that 67 percent of New Orleans is black and half of...

We veterans of the 2004 campaign can hardly imagine the American political left sinking lower than it did then: the fake memo, Michael Moore's celluloid sandwich board, George Soros, "Bush is Hitler," Bruce Springsteen. And yet, as its reaction to Hurricane Katrina makes plain, the left is perfectly willing to sink a lot deeper.

Lacking scientific backing doesn't seem to prevent many commentators from seizing on untestable, religious or paraphysical reasons for this past year's devastating natural events Two devastating natural disasters in eight months have been too much to bear for a large number of commentators, who have managed to find both solace and heartfelt smugness in the indubitable righteousness that the Asian tsunami and the New Orleans hurricane were performed for them. Katrina was ``the fist of God,'' or maybe ``the whirlwind of fossil fuel dependence,'' or, no, it was ``payback of this racist, white supremacist American culture''. The tsunami was equally...

Vernon Dalhart, the most popular singer in America during the 1920's, recorded many songs about the great disasters of that decade, inlcuding hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, explosions, airship crashes, and train wrecks. His hit recording about the massive flood in the lower Mississippi Valley in 1927 seems eerily timely. The Mississippi Flood Another great disaster has come upon our land, Down where the Mississippi flows on its way so grand. The springtime flowers were blooming, the world was bright and gay, And folks along the levee were happy all the day. Ane then the skies grew cloudy, and rain came falling...

The United States, which wants to take an international role in setting up a global tsunami-warning system and is in the running for the job with the United Nations, doubts the UN has the ability to coordinate such a program. Uncle Sam is right. Although it rated little mainline media attention, The UN already had a tsunami-warning system in place on December 26, 2004. The existing warning system goes under another one of those confusing UN names: the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty Organization, CNTBTO for UN short. As reported by the International Herald Tribune, this was the state of affairs...

<p>Former President Jimmy Carter has been linked with a key figure in the U.N.'s oil-for-food scandal by the group leading the nationwide effort to evict the United Nations from American soil and halt U.S. funding of the U.N.</p>

The tsunami that struck Asia and Somalia left unprecedented, unfathomable death and destruction in its wake. It was a shocking reminder that, for all its beauty and bounties, Mother Nature still periodically unleashes awesome powers that threaten our lives, even our very civilization--and exposes the shocking vulnerability of our Earth’s poorest communities. Equally unprecedented is the life-giving aid that continues to flow to these battered regions. It reflects the best that humans are capable of--and the vital importance of modern technology, medicine, communication and transportation. This monumental natural disaster has seized our attention. But it must not distract us from...

When more than 100,000 people have been killed, and thousands of others are in danger, the international community has a moral obligation to do what it can to limit the damage and reduce the suffering of survivors. So why is it that the international community so rarely even tries? Oh yes, an unprecedented relief effort is taking place now in the areas of South Asia struck by last month's tsunami. That's laudable. But when, in 1987-88, more than 100,000 people were killed in the Kurdish areas of Iraq, the international community turned a blind eye. Those Kurdish victims were overcome...

After the horrific loss of life in the Indian Ocean region from the record earthquake and resulting tsunami last week, I was struck by the immensity of what had happened. While scientists continue to argue over whether we can even measure mankind's influence on weather or climate in the face of naturally occurring hurricanes, tornadoes, heat waves, cold waves, blizzards, and floods, Mother Nature shows us that she still rules the day. There is no question that the Earth knows that humans live here -- six billion people are going to have some effect on the environment, no matter how...