URL: http://standeyo.com/NEWS/08_Earth_Changes/080228.natl.diz.up.html
Natural Disasters at Highest-Ever Levels
February 28, 2008
By Holly Deyo
standeyo.com
- Tornadoes twist off the charts.
- Earthquakes rocket up.
- Floods soak millions.
- Deepening drought sucks life from rivers, reservoirs, crops and livestock.
- Sea levels rise, along with the number of blistering Summer heat waves and record-breaking snowfalls.
- 2005 brought one of the worst-ever hurricane seasons.
- Wildfires flare in the middle of Winter in America's South and Canada after coming off history's second worst fire season.
- And the Sun... that unknown factor... The door has barely opened to Solar Cycle 24 which is to peak around 2012. How will it affect these growing problems...
Add to this a shaky, antiquated power grid we depend on to cool us from savage heat, warm us in brutal freezes and to keep life as normal as possible. Two massive power failures in three months point to its frailty. Money needed to fix many critical infrastructure problems is sent out of country or flicked away by a flagging economy. Increasingly emergency preparedness is left to the individual because government doesn't have the $$ or manpower, and sometimes not the competence, to get the job done.
Yet, when we should be getting out of harm's way, and finding a safe place, more people are moving right into disaster target zones. You can almost hear Clint ask, "Well, do you feel lucky?"