GEORGE W WAKE UP CALL

ISAIAH 13:6-7 KJV
6 Howl ye; for the day of the LORD is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty.
7 Therefore shall all hands be faint, and every man's heart shall melt:(FROM FRIGHT)

2 TIMOTHY 3:1
1 This know also, that in the last days perilous (DANGEROUS) times shall come.

STORMS HURRICANES-TORNADOES

LUKE 21:25-26
25 And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity;(MASS CONFUSION) the sea and the waves roaring;(FIERCE WINDS)
26 Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.

JOEL 3:2
2 I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land.

THIS STORM IS TAKING UP THE WHOLE MEXICAN GULF. ITS THE BIGGEST JACQUI JERAS HAS EVER SEEN SHE MENTIONED ON CNN. THESE WAVES AND WIND WILL BE BASHING TEXAS HARD. ALREADY THERES WAVES AND LAND FALL IS AT LEAST 10 HOURS 200 MILES AWAY YET.

NOTICE THIS TIME ITS TEXAS GEORGE W COUNTRY. GOD IS GIVING GEORGE A LAST SECOND LESSON ABOUT DIVIDING JERUSALEM AND SCATTERING ISRAELIS FROM THEIR GOD GIVIN LAND.

I BELIEVE GEORGE W AND AMERICA IS PRESURRING ISRAEL SO BAD RIGHT NOW GOD HAS TO SCATTER AMERICANS TO GET GEORGE W AND CONDIS ATTENTION. SINCE THE ADMINSTRATION IS ALMOST DONE WITH, GEORGE W AND CONDI THINK THEY CAN LEAVE A PEACE LEGACE, LITTLE DO THEY KNOW IT COULD BE TEXAS WORST LEGACE IN HISTORY DUE TO THE ADMINISTRATION FORCING ISRAEL TO DIVIDE JERUSALEM GODS HOLY CITY HE GAVE TO ISRAEL (ISAAC) NOT ISHMAEL (ARABS).

Forecaster warns of certain death as Ike looms By MICHAEL GRACZYK, Associated Press Writer SEPT 12,08

HOUSTON - A sprawling and strengthening Hurricane Ike steamed through the Gulf of Mexico on Friday on a track toward the nation's fourth-largest city, where authorities told residents to brace rather than flee. Closer to the coast, small towns were mostly empty after forecasters issued dire warnings the storm could kill.

Ike's 105-mph winds and potential 50-foot waves stopped the Coast Guard from attempting a risky helicopter rescue of 22 people aboard a 584-foot freighter that broke down in the path of the storm about 90 miles southeast of Galveston, Chief Petty Officer Mike O'Berry said. The ship was hauling petroleum coke used to fuel furnaces at steel plants.Ike's eye was forecast to strike somewhere near Galveston late Friday or early Saturday, but the massive system was already buffeting Texas and Louisiana, causing flooding along the Louisiana coast still recovering from Labor Day's Hurricane Gustav.The National Weather Service warned residents of smaller structures on Galveston they could face certain death if they ignored an order to evacuate; most had complied, along with hundreds of thousands of fellow Texans in counties up and down the coastline.But a stubborn few decided to stay. Emory Sallie, 44, said he had ridden storms out in the past and didn't think Ike would be any different. He didn't believe the dire warnings — he was more worried about the wind, not the flooding.If the island is going to disappear it has to be a tsunami, he said, as he walked along the block where his home is located, drinking a beer and smoking a cigarette. If it ain't your time you ain't going anywhere.In Surfside Beach, a small coastal town of about 805, construction worker Bobby Taylor decided to stay, even though his wife, Elizabeth, was leaving and the waves had already been whipped up so high their home was flooded. Police there were using a dump truck to try to reach flooded residences.There's no changing his mind so I just have to pray for him and hope for the best, she said, her green eyes misting. I just worry about him. I think it's going to get a lot worse than he realizes, and then there's no way to get out of here.President Bush was briefed on the storm Friday by Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, and spoke with Texas Gov. Rick Perry Thursday.I'm deeply concerned about Hurricane Ike. It's a large storm headed to a major population center, Bush said during a visit to Oklahoma Friday.Officials said inland residents should not flock to the roadways en masse, creating the same kind of gridlock that cost lives — and a little political capital — when Hurricane Rita threatened Houston in 2005. Some evacuation orders were in effect for low-lying sections of the Houston area, but for the most part, people stayed. Large hospitals in the city moved some patients away from windows, but they did not flee.

It will be, in candor, something that people will be scared of, Houston Mayor Bill White said. A number of people in this community have not experienced the magnitude of these winds.The decision is a stark contrast to how emergency management officials responded to Hurricane Rita in 2005. As the storm closed in three years ago, the region implemented its plan: Evacuate the 2 million people in the coastal communities first, past the metropolis of Houston; once they were out of harm's way, Houston would follow in an orderly fashion.But three days before landfall, Rita bloomed into a Category 5 and tracked toward the city. City and Harris County officials told Houstonians to hit the road, even while the population of Galveston Island was still clogging the freeways. The evacuation itself wound up far more dangerous than the storm: 110 people died during the effort, while the eventual Category 4 storm killed nine.Residents were scurrying to get ready for Ike, and hardware stores put limits on the number of gas containers that could be sold. Batteries, drinking water and other storm supplies were running low, and grocery stores were getting set to close.We're faced with devastation of a catastrophic range, said Randy Smith, the police chief and a waterfront property owner on Surfside Beach, just down the coast from Galveston and a possible landfall target. I think we're going to see a storm like most of us haven't seen.Friday morning, Houstonians streamed in and out of a Randalls grocery store near downtown, carts filled with last-minute supplies such as water and Wheat Thins. Ken Wilson, 51, cut short a vacation to California to return home and ready for Ike. He loaded eight gallons of water into his car trunk before heading home to ride out the storm with his wife.Wilson said it was too late for him to board up his house, though he had stocked up on ice and batteries. We'll just tape up to keep things from flying around. I'm apprehensive about how high the winds are going to be, and windows breaking, he said, but still: What's the philosophy? Run from the water, shelter from the wind? If it's wind: Hunker down.

Texans were getting hit from both sides, as the remnants of Tropical Storm Lowell, a Pacific system, dumped nearly 8 inches of rain on Lubbock in 24 hours, flooding homes and roads. Some businesses closed, and Texas Tech University and other schools canceled Friday classes. Ike would be the first major hurricane to hit a U.S. metropolitan area since Katrina devastated New Orleans three years ago. For Houston — a city filled with gleaming skyscrapers, the nation's biggest refinery and NASA's Johnson Space Center — it would be the first major hurricane since Alicia in August 1983 came ashore on Galveston Island, killing 21 people and causing $2 billion in damage. Galveston, a barrier island and beach town about 50 miles southeast of downtown Houston, was the scene of the nation's deadliest hurricane, the great storm of 1900 that left at least 6,000 dead. Ike swelled into a huge storm, slinging 75 mph winds up to 120 miles from its center. That meant a direct hit on Galveston could still mean hurricane-force winds affecting a stretch of coast halfway to Corpus Christi and well into Louisiana. The storm is so big, it could inflict a punishing blow even in those areas that do not get a direct hit. Forecasters warned because of Ike's size and the shallow Texas coastal waters, it could produce a surge, or wall of water, 20 feet high. It could also dump 10 inches or more of rain.

If the storm stays on its projected path, it could head up the Houston ship channel and through Galveston Bay, which Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff called a nightmare scenario. At 11 a.m. EDT Friday, the storm was centered about 195 miles southeast of Galveston, moving to the west-northwest near 12 mph. Hurricane warnings were in effect over a 400-mile stretch of coastline from south of Corpus Christi to Morgan City, La. Tropical storm warnings extended south almost to the Mexican border and east to the Mississippi-Alabama line, including New Orleans. The oil and gas industry was closely watching the storm because it was headed straight for the nation's biggest complex of refineries and petrochemical plants. The upper Texas coast accounts for one-fifth of U.S. refining capacity. Some service stations in the Southeast were limiting customers to 10 gallons of gas to guard against running out.
Associated Press writers Kelley Shannon in Austin, Paul Weber and Regina L. Burns in Dallas, Juan A. Lozano in Galveston, John Porretto and Pauline Arrillaga in Houston, Diana Heidgerd in Dallas, and Allen Breed and video journalist Rich Matthews and Allen Breed in Surfside Beach contributed to this report.

Why Ike Could Be Texas' Worst Nightmare Andrea Thompson
Senior Writer LiveScience.com SEPT 12,08

As Hurricane Ike revs up again over the Gulf of Mexico, residents of coastal Texas, especially Houston and Galveston, are preparing for the arrival of the monstrous storm, which could be the most devastating that the Lone Star State has seen Hurricane Alicia came ashore in 1983, causing nearly $6 billion in damage and 21 fatalities. Ike is huge. Hurricane-force winds extend out 120 miles (195 kilometers) from the storm's center, and tropical storm-force winds reach out 275 miles (445 km), both measurements exceeding what's seen with many storms. Ike could reach major hurricane status as a Category 3 before it makes landfall late Friday or early Saturday morning somewhere along the Texas coast.And right now it looks like that somewhere will be the Houston/Galveston area.

Will the sea wall hold?

Galveston sits on a barrier island between the Gulf and Galveston Bay. The city was devastated by a major hurricane in 1900, still the deadliest in U.S. history. Galveston officials have already ordered a mandatory evacuation of the island as they keep a wary eye on Ike's progress.Galveston sits right at sea level and so is vulnerable to the mound of water that a hurricane can push in front of it.Our biggest concern for this storm is the tidal surge, said Mary Jo Naschke, the public information officer for the City of Galveston. As a hurricane travels over the ocean, its strong winds push against the water's surface, causing it to pile up higher than the sea's ordinary level. As the hurricane makes landfall, the water is pushed onshore and can quickly wash many miles inland, destroying homes and businesses. This so-called storm surge, or tidal surge, accounts for the majority of deaths and damage caused by a hurricane.Naschke said yesterday they are already seeing a rise in water levels, with the tide coming further up along the beaches and water bubbling up through storm sewers. Storm surge can build for hours as a hurricane approaches, but the bulk of it usually comes as a sudden rush of water that can quickly submerge low-lying coastal areas, washing away cars and trees and flooding buildings.The most vulnerable part of Galveston Island is the western end, which isn't protected by the 18-foot sea wall that the city erected after the catastrophe in 1900, Naschke told LiveScience. A tidal surge of just 5 feet above normal will inundate the roads in that part of town, she said.Ike's storm surge could reach 20 feet, which could cause water to spill over the walls. But Naschke isn't worried about a Katrina-like flooding disaster.

We feel confident that the sea wall will hold, she said.

Naschke said mainland coastal areas, particularly those near bayous behind Galveston, are more at risk for flooding because they have no sea walls. Most of these areas have also been under evacuation orders, she said.

Winds and rain

Houston's downtown area, meanwhile, sits about 50 feet above sea level. The biggest concerns for this, the fourth most populous city in the United States, is high winds, along with flooding from rain if Ike decides to hang around for awhile.Major flooding occurred in Houston in 2001 when Tropical Storm Allison dumped more than 30 inches on parts of the city.It caused a lot of areas to be overrun with water, said Joe Laud, a spokesman for Houston's Office of Emergency Management.Wind could prove damaging to high-rise buildings. Hurricane Alicia, in 1983, was the last hurricane to make a direct hit on the city. It shattered many downtown windows by picking up debris with its ferocious winds. High-rises are particularly vulnerable to a hurricane's winds because they are so high up; a study conducted when Hurricane Georges hit Mississippi in 1998 showed that the winds 1,000 feet (305 meters) above the surface were 23 mph (37 kph) faster than those at ground level, putting the tops of skyscrapers more at risk, said Matt Moreland, a forecaster with the National Weather Service's Houston/Galveston office. Laud said that changes had been made to window materials to make them more resistant to storms but that in a major storm, the winds could still find some piece of debris and inflict damage.Disaster planners in other cities know that buildings under construction, along with their scaffoldings and any construction materials lying around, are particularly vulnerable.While most of Houston's high-rises are office buildings, some contain apartments, and everyone has been asked to evacuate high-rise buildings. Apart from one low-lying area to the southeast of the city, no other evacuations have been called.We're just on standby, getting ready for the storm, Laud said.Back in Galveston, Naschke said the town was already starting to feel the touch of the storm. The winds have picked up considerably, she said late yesterday.But residents seemed to be heeding the evacuation calls, she said: The town's pretty dead.

Taiwan braces for Typhoon Sinlaku Thu Sep 11, 11:45 PM ET

TAIPEI, Taiwan - Taiwan is bracing for Typhoon Sinlaku as the storm gains strength while approaching the island. The Central Weather Bureau says that at 8 a.m. local time Friday, Sinlaku's center was about 200 miles southeast of Hualien, in eastern Taiwan.It says the typhoon is packing winds of 115 mph, up from 109 mph. The storm is moving northeast at a speed of 5 mph.The bureau says that if Sinlaku stays on its current course, it will brush past Taiwan's eastern coast Saturday.

FAMINE

REVELATION 6:5-6
5 And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand.
6 And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine.(A DAYS WAGES FOR A LOAF OF BREAD)

FAMINE

MATTHEW 24:7-8
7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.
8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.

MARK 13:8
8 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles: these are the beginnings of sorrows.

LUKE 21:11
11 And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.

Gas prices shoot up across Canada on Friday as U.S. refineries affected by Ike By The Canadian Press SEPT 12,08

TORONTO - Motorists across Canada were hit with sharply higher gasoline prices Friday as hurricane Ike shut down some refineries on the U.S. Gulf coast, a jump that Prime Minister Stephen Harper said suggests gouging may be going on in some markets. The price for gas at stations throughout southern Ontario soared by about 13 cents a litre at midnight to more than $1.36 a litre. Prices in Ottawa were also up by 13 cents. In Vancouver, prices rose to more than $1.40 a litre at some stations, while Montreal prices jumped about a dime to $1.38 a litre. Halifax prices were up to about $1.33 a litre. GasBuddy.com, a website that monitors North American fuel prices, said the average price Friday in Canada was nearly $1.33 a litre, compared with $1.05 a litre a year ago. At a federal election campaign stop in Halifax, Harper said it appeared to be the case, when asked if there was price gouging going on. Earlier this summer, criminal charges were laid against 13 people and 11 companies for fixing gasoline prices in Quebec. Three of the companies pleaded guilty and were fined a total of $2 million. Liberal MP Dan McTeague, who has gained a reputation for predicting pump price increases based on the wholesale market in the United States, predicted more increases for Canadian motorists later Friday.

News of the looming increases had motorists lining up past gas stations in several Canadian cities as they tried to beat the jump in price. The threat of hurricane Ike to Gulf Coast oil refineries, mostly in Texas, sent wholesale gasoline prices in the U.S. soaring Thursday over supply concerns. As well, U.S. gasoline supplies have dropped by several million barrels over the last week, according to data released by the U.S. Energy Department. While McTeague said the threat posed by the hurricane was the spark that triggered the increase, he also pointed the finger at the Canadian oil industry. The proverbial fuel on the fire is in fact the distortions by an unresponsive, uncompetitive market that has actually been diminishing its output, McTeague said in a phone interview from his Toronto-area riding where he was campaigning for re-election Thursday night. Federal competition reviews of the Canadian industry have repeatedly determined it is highly competitive and reacts to changes in the continental market for gasoline, which is traded as a commodity just like wheat, grain, nickel and oil. Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE:XOM), Valero Energy Corp., ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) and Marathon Oil Co. were among the companies halting operations at refineries on the Texas coast as Ike churned toward the state.

Refineries along the upper Texas Gulf Coast account for about one-fifth of U.S. refining capacity. Exxon Mobil's refinery in Baytown, outside Houston, is the largest in the United States. In a related development Friday, a North Carolina-based convenience store chain asked U.S. customers in 11 states - mostly across the Southeast - to limit gasoline purchases to 10 gallons to avoid a run on supplies.

Another veteran gas-price watcher, Jason Toews, who runs GasBuddy.com, said fear of Ike carried over the border to Canada. With the hurricane in the gulf certainly going to cause some problems with supplies of crude oil and gasoline, mostly refined gasoline, in the U.S... it may have ripple effects all the way up to Canada, Toews said. What they have to do to fill that void is bring in gas from neighbouring states, and it has a ripple effect because those neighbouring states all of sudden don't have enough gas and they have to bring in gas, he said. Gas is trucked in from across the region, and across the country (United States), and from Canada.

Lehman shares fall amid race to find buyer By JOE BEL BRUNO, AP Business Writer SEPT 12,08

NEW YORK - Lehman Brothers' shares sank further on Friday as top executives raced to put a sale of the beleaguered investment bank in place and Washington indicated that taxpayers would not foot the bill. Confidence has waned that Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. will emerge from the financial crisis as an independent franchise, and the No. 4 U.S. investment bank is scouring Wall Street for a financial lifeline. Executives worked feverishly in the past two days to find someone willing to buy all or part of the company, bankers and industry executives close to the situation said.

In midday trading, Lehman shares fell 43 cents, or 10.2 percent, to $3.79. The stock is down more than 96 percent from its 52-week high of $67.73 one year ago.Bank of America Corp., Japan's Nomura Securities, France's BNP Paribas, Deutsche Bank AG and Britain's Barclay's Plc have been mentioned this week as potential buyers. All have declined to comment.Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson is against any use of government money in whatever deal comes together for Lehman, a person close to his thinking said Friday.The person, who spoke on condition of anonymity given the sensitivity of negotiations, said Paulson, who played a major role in engineering the government-back Bear Stearns bailout, believes the Lehman situation is different in two critical aspects.Financial markets have been aware of Lehman's troubles for a long time and have had time to prepare. And the Federal Reserve is now allowing investment banks to borrow directly from the Fed just as commercial banks can do. It opened the borrowing spigot for investment banks after the near collapse of Bear Stearns in March.Given those two things, he is adamant that there be no government money in the resolution of this situation, the person said.Taxpayer money may already be on the line for the government's takeover of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and the government-brokered sale of investment bank Bear Stearns to JPMorgan Chase & Co. in March. The Federal Reserve put up $29 billion in loans to help that deal.The final cost of both actions is impossible to know. It will depend on how much the U.S. economy weakens and how much the housing market sinks. One guess was made earlier this year by the Congressional Budget Office, which estimated that a rescue of Fannie and Freddie could cost taxpayers around $25 billion.

Some economists believe the government's actions ultimately could be more costly to taxpayers than the savings and loan crisis, when the failure of more than 700 S&Ls in the 1980s and early 1990s cost taxpayers around $125 billion.Without the government's financial backing, there's more pressure on Lehman Chief Executive Richard Fuld, who joined the company in 1961 as a college student and now serves as Wall Street's longest-serving CEO. He has tenaciously resisted putting the company up for sale, but finally relented after a free-fall in its stock price and growing doubts about its survival, according to bankers and industry executives. They asked not to be named because they are not authorized to comment publicly.Lehman's losses soared to almost $7 billion in the last two quarters alone, primarily because of wrong-way bets on mortgage securities and other risky investments.It's not alone. Global banks have lost more than $300 billion since the subprime mortgage crisis spread to the credit markets one year ago. And the International Monetary Fund has suggested total losses globally could hit $1 trillion.Lehman Brothers hunted for months for a deep-pocketed investor to pump fresh capital into the firm, a move that would help restore confidence and replenish its broken balance sheet. Some analysts said Lehman was asking too high a price, others guessed that potential investors found too much risk on its books in the current environment.Fuld tried to assuage nervous investors on Wednesday by announcing a plan to sell a 55 percent stake in its prized investment management business and spin off its commercial real estate holdings into a publicly traded company.

Channel Tunnel inferno leaves thousands facing travel chaos by Gael Branchereau SEPT 12,08

CALAIS, France (AFP) - French and British firefighters on Friday extinguished a 1,000-degree inferno in the Channel Tunnel but tens of thousands of travellers faced more infuriating delays as they waited for the undersea link to reopen. A hundred firefighters were still at the site of the fire carrying out procedures to cool down the rail tunnel that links Britain to the European mainland, officials said.The firefighters battled through the night in relay teams against flames and heat which they said reached around 1,000 degrees Celsius (1,830 degrees Fahrenheit) after the blaze began Thursday afternoon.Almost all the 27 trucks on board a 700-metre-long freight train bringing them from France to Britain had burned, said Jacques Gounon, chairman of the Eurotunnel company that operates the tunnel.Tens of thousands of would-be rail travellers have been left stranded in Paris, London and Brussels and hundreds of trucks were stuck on each side of Channel.Teams of Eurotunnel inspectors began examining the 50 kilometres (30 miles) of the tunnel Friday for fire damage, the company said in a statement.A spokeswoman said traffic could possibly start resuming late Friday in the south tunnel, which was not damaged in the blaze, if safety inspectors deliver a green light.Eurostar trains will be given priority, followed by shuttles carrying trucks and cars between Folkestone in England and Calais.There are two tunnels for passenger trains and shuttles, linked by a service tunnel for maintenance and safety operations.Traffic was expected to resume in the least-damaged sections of the north tunnel in one or two weeks, the Eurotunnel spokeswoman said. She could give no date for the worst-hit parts of the tunnel.We need to redo the electricity, the concrete, everything you do when a house burns down, she said.

Eurostar said around 30,000 passengers had been due to travel on 50 Eurostar trains going through the tunnel on Friday.Kirsty McIntyre, 28, struggling to get to France for a weekend with friends, was stuck at London's St Pancras terminal. We're going to see if we can get a bus to Dover and a ferry to Calais, he said.Channel ferry companies have laid on extra boats.The train was about 12 kilometres (seven miles) from the Calais exit on the French side of the 50.5-kilometre (31.4 mile) tunnel when it caught fire, officials said.Thirty-two truck drivers on the shuttle smashed windows to escape and get into the service tunnel from they were evacuated. Six people were injured in the third major blaze since the tunnel under the Channel opened in May 1994.Officials said they suspected the fire started in a truck's braking system that overheated and spread to a tyre, but Eurotunnel's Gounon said it was too soon to say with any certainty what the cause was.One of the 30 trucks on the shuttle was carrying phenol acid, but this did not catch fire. Gounon said safety precautions had worked perfectly.Asked about the truck drivers smashing windows to escape the shuttle, he said this was a normal reaction by the men who may have been stressed and perhaps wanted to get out faster than necessary from the pressurised cabin.

He told French radio the automatic doors on the shuttle only function when it is certain that safety fans are working so there is no risk of anyone being overcome by fumes. It takes a few seconds. One can imagine that in the stress of the moment they took the red hammer to get out through the window. A few seconds later they would have got out more easily through the door. It doesn't matter, it worked.In the first serious incident in the tunnel on November 18, 1996, a fire broke out on a late-night shuttle train carrying trucks. Eight people were injured and the service was disrupted for several months. On August 21, 2006, the tunnel was closed for several hours after a truck engine caught fire, sending smoke through the tunnel.