JEWISH KING JESUS IS COMING AT THE RAPTURE FOR US IN THE CLOUDS-DON'T MISS IT FOR THE WORLD.THE BIBLE TAKEN LITERALLY- WHEN THE PLAIN SENSE MAKES GOOD SENSE-SEEK NO OTHER SENSE-LEST YOU END UP IN NONSENSE.GET SAVED NOW- CALL ON JESUS TODAY.THE ONLY SAVIOR OF THE WHOLE EARTH - NO OTHER.
1 COR 15:23-JESUS THE FIRST FRUITS-CHRISTIANS RAPTURED TO JESUS-FIRST FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT-23 But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.ROMANS 8:23 And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.(THE PRE-TRIB RAPTURE)
STORMS HURRICANES-TORNADOES
LUKE 21:25-26
25 And there shall be signs in the sun,(HEATING UP-SOLAR ECLIPSES) and in the moon,(MAN ON MOON-LUNAR ECLIPSES) and in the stars;(ASTEROIDS ETC) 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,(TORNADOES,HURRICANES,STORMS) and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth:(DESTRUCTION) for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.(FROM QUAKES,NUKES ETC)
THE FIRST JUDGEMENT OF THE EARTH STARTED WITH WATER-IT ONLY MAKES SENSE THE LAST GENERATION WILL BE HAVING FLOODING
GENESIS 7:6-12
6 And Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters was upon the earth.
7 And Noah went in, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons’ wives with him, into the ark, because of the waters of the flood.
8 Of clean beasts, and of beasts that are not clean, and of fowls, and of every thing that creepeth upon the earth,
9 There went in two and two unto Noah into the ark, the male and the female, as God had commanded Noah.
10 And it came to pass after seven days, that the waters of the flood were upon the earth.
11 In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.
12 And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights.
GOD PROMISED BY A RAINBOW-THE EARTH WOULD NEVER BE DESTROYED TOTALLY WITH A FLOOD AGAIN.BUT FLOODIING IS A SIGN OF JUDGEMENT.
Irma knocks out power to nearly 6 million: authorities-[Reuters]-By Scott DiSavino-YAHOONEWS-September 11, 2017
(Reuters) - Hurricane Irma knocked out power to about 5.8 million homes and businesses in Florida, even as the storm weakened as it crept up the state's west coast, according to state officials and local electric utilities.Irma hit Florida on Sunday morning as a dangerous Category 4 hurricane, the second-highest level on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale. It gradually lost strength and weakened to a tropical storm by Monday morning as it headed toward Georgia, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said at 8 a.m. EDT (1200 GMT).Maximum sustained winds were at 70 miles (110 km) per hour, the forecaster said.Power losses in Georgia, which were at about 152,000 as of 8:45 a.m. EDT, were expected to increase as the storm moved north.In Florida, the state's biggest electric company said its outages came to more than 3.6 million by 8:30 a.m. on Monday. A total of 4.2 million Florida Power & Light customers have been affected, with about 570,000 getting service restored, mostly by automated devices.Full restoration of power could take weeks in many areas due to expected damage to FPL's system, the NextEra Energy Inc unit said.As the storm pushed north, outage figures were increasing at other large utilities, including units of Duke Energy Corp, Southern Co and Emera Inc.Duke's outages jumped to more than 860,000 overnight; the company said they could ultimately exceed 1 million. Emera's Tampa Electric utility reported 300,000 homes and businesses lost power by Monday morning.FPL said its two nuclear plants were safe. Both units at its Turkey Point facility, located about 30 miles (48 km) south of Miami, were shut by early Monday.The company closed Turkey Point's Unit 3 on Saturday as Irma approached the coast but decided not shut Unit 4 at that time because the hurricane track shifted away from the plant toward the western part of the Florida Peninsula. FPL, however, shut Unit 4 on Sunday night due to a possible valve issue that was probably not related to Irma, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission officials said on Monday.At its St Lucie nuclear plant located about 120 miles (190 km) north of Miami, FPL started to reduce power at Unit 1 due to salt buildup from Irma in the switchyard, NRC spokesman Roger Hannah said. The plant's other reactor, Unit 2, continued to operate at full power.Duke's retired Crystal River plant, about 90 miles (145 km) north of Tampa, has spent nuclear fuel, but Hannah said that was not a problem.As the storm loomed and came ashore, gasoline stations struggled to keep up as people evacuated Florida. In the Atlanta metropolitan area, about 13.2 percent of stations were out of the fuel, according to information service Gas Buddy.Irma is expected to sap demand for fuel for a time, Goldman Sachs analysts said in a note on Monday, but they cautioned that supply could remain strained due to refining capacity offline in the wake of Hurricane Harvey, which hit Texas two weeks ago.(Reporting by Scott DiSavino and Jessica Resnick-Ault in New York; Additional reporting by Ruthy Munoz in Houston; Editing by Frances Kerry and Lisa Von Ahn)
Tropical Storm Irma floods northern Florida cities after hammering south-[Reuters]-By Zachary Fagenson and Daniel Trotta-YAHOONEWS-September 11, 2017
MIAMI/KISSIMMEE, Fla. (Reuters) - Downgraded from a hurricane to a tropical storm, Irma flooded several northern Florida cities with heavy rain and a high storm surge on Monday as it headed out of the state after cutting power to millions and ripping roofs off homes.Irma, once ranked as one of the most powerful hurricanes recorded in the Atlantic, hit a wide swath of Florida over the past day, first making landfall on the Florida Keys archipelago and then coming ashore south of Naples before heading up the west coast.Now a tropical storm with sustained winds of up to 70 miles per hour (110 km per hour), Irma was located about 35 miles (56 km) west of Gainesville and headed up the Gulf Coast, the National Hurricane Center said at 8 a.m. ET (1200 GMT).The Cuban government reported on Monday that 10 people had been killed after Irma battered the island's north coast with ferocious winds and 36-foot (11-meter) waves over the weekend. This raised the overall death toll from Irma's powerful rampage through the Caribbean to 38.Northeastern Florida cities including Jacksonville were facing flash flooding, with the city's sheriff's office pulling residents from waist-deep water."Stay inside. Go up. Not out," Jacksonville's website warned residents. "There is flooding throughout the city and more rain is expected."-HEART-POUNDING NIGHT-After what she called a terrifying night bunkered in her house in St. Petersburg, on Florida's Gulf Coast, with her children and extended family, Julie Hally emerged with relief on Monday. The winds had toppled some large tree branches and part of a fence, but her house was undamaged."My heart just pounded out of my chest the whole time," said Hally, 37. "You hear stuff hitting your roof. It honestly sounds like somebody is just whistling at your window the whole night. It's really scary."Governor Rick Scott said he would travel later on Monday to the Florida Keys. Irma first came ashore at Cudjoe Key as a Category 4 hurricane with sustained winds of up to 130 mph (215 kph.)U.S. President Donald Trump in a ceremony at the Pentagon to remember the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks vowed a full response to Irma, as well as continued federal support for victims of Hurricane Harvey, which flooded Texas."These are storms of catastrophic severity and we are marshalling the full resources of the federal government to help our fellow Americans," Trump said. "When Americans are in need, Americans pull together and we are one country."The state's largest city, Miami, was spared the brunt of the storm but still saw heavy flooding. Utility crews were already on the streets there clearing downed trees and utility lines. All causeways leading to Miami Beach were closed by police.As it traveled through the center of the state early on Monday, Irma brought gusts of up to 100 mph (160 kph) and torrential rain to areas around Orlando, one of the most popular areas for tourism in Florida because of its cluster of theme parks, the National Weather Service said.A piece of a McDonald's "golden arch" sign hung in a tree near the fast-food restaurant in the central Florida city of Kissimmee on Monday morning. Valerie Gilleece, 55, had ridden out the storm in the city because her wheelchair-bound husband insisted on it, she said."I'm just thanking God to be alive," Gilleece said. "I wanted to go from the start but he's stubborn as hell."Over the weekend, Irma claimed its first U.S. fatality - a man found dead in a pickup truck that had crashed into a tree in high winds in the town of Marathon, in the Florida Keys, local officials said.During its passage through the Caribbean en route to Florida, Irma was ranked at the rare top end of the scale of hurricane intensity, a Category 5, for days. It carried maximum sustained winds of up to 185 mph (295 kph) when it crashed into the island of Barbuda on Wednesday.Ahead of Irma's arrival, some 6.5 million people in southern Florida, about a third of the state's population, were ordered to evacuate their homes. Some 200,000 were housed in shelters during the storm, according to federal officials.-DAMAGE ESTIMATES-The storm did some $20 billion to $40 billion in damage to insured property as it tore through Florida, catastrophe modeling firm AIR Worldwide estimated.That estimate, lower than earlier forecasts of up to $50 billion in insured losses, drove insurance company shares higher on Monday. Florida-based insurers Federated National, HCI Group and Universal Insurance were all up more than 12 percent. Meanwhile, Europe's insurance index was the biggest sectoral gainer, up 2 percent and set for its best day in more than four months.High winds snapped power lines and left about 5.8 million Florida homes and businesses without power, state data showed.Miami International Airport, one of the busiest in the country, halted passenger flights through at least Monday. According to the FlightAware.com tracking site, a total of 3,582 U.S. flights were canceled on Monday, mostly as a result of the storm.Irma was forecast to cross the eastern Florida Panhandle and move into southern Georgia later in the day, dumping as much as 16 inches (41 cm) of rain, government forecasters said.Police in Miami-Dade County said they had made 29 arrests for looting and burglary.(Additional reporting by Bernie Woodall, Ben Gruber and Andy Sullivan in Miami, Letitia Stein in Detroit, Colleen Jenkins in Winston-Salem, N.C., Doina Chiacu and Jeff Mason in Washington, Scott DiSavino in New York and Marc Frank in Havana; Writing by Scott Malone and Jon Herskovitz; Editing by Frances Kerry and Paul Simao)
Hurricane trash pile, removal costs could reach staggering levels-[Reuters]-By Bryan Sims-YAHOONEWS-September 11, 2017
HOUSTON (Reuters) - Even as Texas continues to marshal crews to handle Hurricane Harvey debris, Irma's move up the west coast of Florida on Monday promises to stress the effort and leave a combined bill near or topping the multi-billion dollar tab for Katrina, the largest to date.Officials insist they can manage two large cleanups at once. Throughout the weekend, disaster specialist AshBritt Inc, DRC Emergency Services and waste haulers, including Waste Management and municipal crews brought to Houston, were carting Harvey's rubble to dozens of Texas landfills.Texas disclosed about $136 million in federal funds were released to pay for initial efforts around Houston. The city's mayor, Sylvester Turner, had issued a call for heavy equipment operators to help, but a spokesman said the city has 64 crews at work or soon to arrive, "all the help we need.""It's going to stress the industry from an equipment standpoint," said John Sullivan, chief executive of DRC Emergency Services, said of the two Category 4 storms. His company will split specialized vehicles between Texas and Florida, relying on subcontractors with their own equipment. Clearing Texas's debris will take four to six months, he said.After Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005, the cleanup took about a year, said Hugh Kaufman, a retired EPA solid waste and emergency response analyst. The overall bill for Katrina was $2 billion, the largest to date, spanned several states and the demolition of the more than 23,000 homes in the New Orleans area alone. He thinks the combined clean-up tab will top Katrina's.The Gulf Coast bill "is going to be worse," estimated Kaufman. While Irma's shift west and weakening winds on Monday helped reduce its impact and likely bill, "There are a lot of question marks to know what the exact cost will be," he said, as the storm brings rain and wind to Georgia.Texas's tally of the cost of debris removal by affected counties from Harvey on Monday totaled $118 million, but many communities haven't yet provided estimates. Houston estimates the city's clean-up bill alone will run to $200 million.The scale of the effort isn't reassuring to residents living alongside the mess. Houston's fire chief on Saturday advised residents in severely affected areas to get tetanus shots."Our trash pile has been at our curb for going on two weeks and they aren't telling us when it's going to be picked up," said Melissa Brewer, 38, of Katy, Texas.Meanwhile, smaller businesses looking to hire crews for trash removal in Texas said Irma is affecting availability. "Everyone's shooting down to Florida," said Marcel Yanez, a Missouri contractor who visited Friendswood, south of Houston, for potential work. "The price point is higher," he said.Larger companies are reopening closed Texas facilities. "Our landfills are doubling in volume," said Marcel Darby, an operations director for Waste Management, which is running its landfills seven days a week.Residents say all the three major floods that hit Texas in recent years has given companies and officials the experience to move trash away quickly."They have had enough practice that they're getting quite efficient at it," said Bellaire, Texas, resident Mike McCorkle, 63. He took a break from repairing his home to gaze at the mountain of debris lining his street. "I think they'll need to do it fast because those trucks will be needed in Florida very soon."(Reporting by Bryan Sims and Nick Carey in Houston; Writing by Gary McWilliams and Nick Zieminski)
FPL shuts one reactor in Florida, reduces power at another after Irma-[Reuters]-YAHOONEWS-September 11, 2017
(Reuters) - Florida Power & Light shut Unit 4 at the Turkey Point nuclear power station in Florida Sunday night due to a likely valve issue, and is reducing power at Unit 1 at the St Lucie power plant due to salt build up in the switchyard, a spokesman at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Monday.He could not say whether the Turkey Point 4 outage was related to Hurricane Irma, which battered Florida over the weekend, and he could not say whether FPC planned to shut or just reduce St Lucie 1.(Reporting by Scott DiSavino)
Irma's winds buckle three giant cranes in South Florida-[Reuters]-By Zach Fagenson-YAHOONEWS-September 10, 2017
MIAMI (Reuters) - Cranes at three South Florida high rises under construction collapsed in the face of heavy winds as Hurricane Irma ripped through the area on Sunday, days after authorities warned about dangers to cranes from the approaching storm.No injuries were reported in any of the three collapses, and investigations would begin after the storm cleared, officials said.Soon after one of the cranes collapsed, the chief executive of the company developing the building told Reuters he was attending the U.S. Open tennis tournament in New York when the accident occurred and had just learned about it."This particular crane, some of it was taken down," Jorge Perez, chief executive of The Related Group, Miami's largest developer, said by telephone. "They were surprised that it went down because they felt it was one of the more secure cranes, so we’re right on it."A video posted on Twitter showed the crane's boom dangling above the unfinished building.A crane at a Related Group project in Fort Lauderdale went down later on Sunday, Perez said. He had no immediate details about the incident.High winds also snapped the boom of a crane erected on top of a Miami apartment building under construction. The project was being developed by New York-based Property Markets Group, according to The Real Deal, a South Florida real estate news website.After the collapse, the boom was partly dangling on the side of the building, attached to the crane tower by a cable, photos on Twitter showed. Attempts to reach Property Markets Group offices in New York and Miami were unsuccessful.Miami had been in touch with Perez, but the state of Florida and the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration had jurisdiction over the cranes, City Manager Daniel Alfonso said. No one was immediately available to comment at OSHA or the governor's office.The National Weather Service recorded wind gusts in Miami reaching about 100 miles per hour (160 kph), with sustained winds of 50 to 60 mph (80 to 96 kph), as Irma moved up Florida's west coast.As Irma approached last week, Miami officials said 20 to 25 construction cranes were up across the city and that they were designed to withstand winds of 145 mph (235 kph).It warned that the cranes had to be unpinned, so that their horizontal booms could rotate on their support columns like a weather vane.(Additional reporting by Ian Simpson in Washington; Writing by Ian Simpson; Editing by Sandra Maler and Peter Cooney)
Aid on way to Irma-battered islands as death toll rises-[Associated Press]-ANDREA RODRIGUEZ and DESMOND BOYLAN-YAHOONEWS-September 11, 2017
HAVANA (AP) — With ports mended and weather cleared, Caribbean officials struggled Monday to get aid to islands devastated by Hurricane Irma and tried to take stock of the damage caused by the Category 5 storm.At least 34 people were reported to have been killed in the region, including 10 in Cuba, whose northern coast was raked by the storm. Cuban state media said most of those died in Havana, where seawater surged deep into residential neighborhoods.To the east, in the Leeward Islands known as the playground for the rich and famous, governments came under criticism for failing to respond quickly to the hurricane, which flattened many towns and turned lush, green hills to a brown stubble.Residents have reported food, water and medicine shortages, as well as looting.British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson defended his government's response to what he called an "unprecedented catastrophe" and promised to increase funding for the relief effort. Britain sent a navy ship and almost 500 troops to the British Virgin Islands, Anguilla and the Turks and Caicos islands that were pummeled by the hurricane.The U.S. government said it was sending a flight Monday to evacuate its citizens from St. Martin, one of the hardest-hit islands. Evacuees were warned to expect long lines and no running water at the airport.A Royal Caribbean Cruise Line ship was expected to dock near St. Martin to help in the aftermath, and a boat was bringing a 5-ton crane capable of unloading large shipping containers of aid. A French military ship was scheduled to arrive Tuesday with materials for temporary housing.About 70 percent of the beds at the main hospital in the French portion of St. Martin were severely damaged, and more than 100 people needing urgent medical care were evacuated. Eight of the territory's 11 pharmacies were destroyed, and Guadeloupe was sending medication.French President Emmanuel Macron was scheduled to arrive in St. Martin on Tuesday to bring aid and fend off criticism that he didn't do enough to respond to the storm.The "whole government is mobilized" to help, said Interior Minister Gerard Collomb.Soon after Irma killed 10 people on St. Martin, Category 4 Hurricane Jose threatened the area, halting evacuations for hours before heading out to sea and causing little additional damage.Also hit hard was Cuba, where central Havana neighborhoods along the coast between the Almendares River and the harbor suffered the worst flooding. Seawater penetrated as much as a half-kilometer (one-third of a mile) inland in some places.Cuban state media reported 10 deaths despite the country's usually rigorous disaster preparations. More than 1 million were evacuated from flood-prone areas.Hector Pulpito recounted a harrowing experience at his job as night custodian of a parking lot that flooded five blocks from the sea in Havana's Vedado neighborhood."This was the worst of the storms I have been through, and the sea rose much higher," Pulpito said. "The trees were shaking. Metal roofs went flying."Cuban state television reported severe damage to hotels on the northern keys off Ciego de Avila and Camaguey provinces.The Jardines del Rey airport serving the northern keys was destroyed, the Communist Party newspaper Granma reported, tweeting photos of a shattered terminal hall littered with debris.___Boylan reported from Caibarien, Cuba. Associated Press writer Danica Coto in San Juan, Puerto Rico, contributed.
Mexico rushes aid to millions after huge quake; death toll at 96-[Reuters]-YAHOONEWS-September 11, 2017
JUCHITAN, Mexico (Reuters) - A powerful earthquake that struck Mexico last week has left some 2.5 million people in need of aid and killed 96 others, authorities said on Monday, as officials rushed to get food and water to afflicted communities in the poor south.Oaxaca state governor Alejandro Murat told local television the death toll in his state had risen to 76. He said preliminary reports showed that at least 12,000 homes were damaged, and warned the number was likely to rise.Murat said 1 million people in Oaxaca needed food, water, electricity and help rebuilding damaged homes, while in neighboring Chiapas state, which was closest to the epicenter of the tremor, 1.5 million people were affected, according to officials."We are united in facing this humanitarian crisis," Murat said.The 8.1-magnitude quake off the coast of Chiapas rattled Mexico City and sowed destruction across the narrowest portion of Mexico on the isthmus of Tehuantepec.Sixteen people have been reported dead in Chiapas state and four in neighboring Tabasco. Many of the fatalities in Oaxaca were in the town of Juchitan, where more than 5,000 homes were destroyed.The quake, the most powerful earthquake to hit Mexico in over eight decades, was stronger than a 1985 temblor that killed thousands in Mexico City. However, its greater depth and distance kept the capital from being more serious damaged.President Enrique Pena Nieto on Friday declared three days of national mourning and pledged to rebuild shattered towns and villages.(Reporting by David Alire Garcia in Juchitan and Sheky Espejo in Mexico City; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)
Macron to 'rebuild' EU with citizen conventions-By Eric Maurice-EUOBSERVER
BRUSSELS, 8. Sep, 09:16-French president Emmanuel Macron wants to launch citizens' debates across Europe in order to "rebuild" the EU in a more democratic way."Europe can continue its destiny only if it is chosen and wanted," he said in Athens on Thursday (7 September).In a speech symbolically delivered in "the cradle of democracy", on the Pnyx hill, with the Acropolis behind him, the French leader called on Europeans to "have the courage to find again the path of democracy."He said that he wanted to organise a series of "democratic conventions" in the first half of 2018 in EU countries that were willing to do so.He explained that "the peoples of Europe will be consulted and will debate on principles proposed by the governments."Then a "roadmap for Europe in the next 10 or 15 years" would be elaborated upon the citizens' ideas.Referring to previously lost EU referendums in France, Netherlands, and Ireland, he noted that "the European project was turned down by peoples" but that those peoples "were not heard"."In Europe today, sovereignty, democracy, and trust are in danger," Macron said."We must rediscover the enthusiasm that the union was founded upon and change, not with technocrats and not with bureaucracy," he added.Macron's proposal on conventions was reminiscent of how he launched his own political career last year.He started with a questionnaire to citizens when he created his political movement, which helped him to make a "diagnosis" of voters' expectations ahead of the 2017 elections.His Athens gambit was also part of a strategy to shape EU politics, and to put France and Macron himself centre stage.Macron, who has met almost all EU leaders in recent weeks, has said he will soon make 10 "concrete propositions" to rebuild Europe.He intends to present them after the German elections on 24 September, but before German coalition talks start, so that they can be taken into account in the discussions to elaborate the next German government's programme.Macron gave some indications on Thursday of what he will propose.He said he was in favour of transnational lists for the European elections. He also said that he wanted a eurozone parliament "which would enable the creation of democratic responsibility."The strengthening of the eurozone will form the bulk of Macron's propositions.-Jab at IMF-Repeating ideas first aired last week, the French president said in Athens that he wanted a eurozone budget and a European finance minister. He added that the eurozone should have its own capacity to manage financial crises.He criticised the EU management of the Greek crisis, in particular its call to involve the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in 2010."I don't think it was the right method for the IMF to supervise European programmes and intervene in the way it did," he said, pleasing his Greek hosts."The IMF had no place in EU matters," Macron said.Macron, who received the Order of the Redeemer, Greece's highest decoration, said: "We still find in Greece the exacerbated problems Europe is suffering from."He called for debt relief for Greece and urged the IMF not to ask for new requirements to go down that path.
LUKE 21:25-26
25 And there shall be signs in the sun,(HEATING UP-SOLAR ECLIPSES) and in the moon,(MAN ON MOON-LUNAR ECLIPSES) and in the stars;(ASTEROIDS ETC) 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,(TORNADOES,HURRICANES,STORMS) and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth:(DESTRUCTION) for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.(FROM QUAKES,NUKES ETC)
THE FIRST JUDGEMENT OF THE EARTH STARTED WITH WATER-IT ONLY MAKES SENSE THE LAST GENERATION WILL BE HAVING FLOODING
GENESIS 7:6-12
6 And Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters was upon the earth.
7 And Noah went in, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons’ wives with him, into the ark, because of the waters of the flood.
8 Of clean beasts, and of beasts that are not clean, and of fowls, and of every thing that creepeth upon the earth,
9 There went in two and two unto Noah into the ark, the male and the female, as God had commanded Noah.
10 And it came to pass after seven days, that the waters of the flood were upon the earth.
11 In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.
12 And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights.
GOD PROMISED BY A RAINBOW-THE EARTH WOULD NEVER BE DESTROYED TOTALLY WITH A FLOOD AGAIN.BUT FLOODIING IS A SIGN OF JUDGEMENT.
Irma knocks out power to nearly 6 million: authorities-[Reuters]-By Scott DiSavino-YAHOONEWS-September 11, 2017
(Reuters) - Hurricane Irma knocked out power to about 5.8 million homes and businesses in Florida, even as the storm weakened as it crept up the state's west coast, according to state officials and local electric utilities.Irma hit Florida on Sunday morning as a dangerous Category 4 hurricane, the second-highest level on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale. It gradually lost strength and weakened to a tropical storm by Monday morning as it headed toward Georgia, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said at 8 a.m. EDT (1200 GMT).Maximum sustained winds were at 70 miles (110 km) per hour, the forecaster said.Power losses in Georgia, which were at about 152,000 as of 8:45 a.m. EDT, were expected to increase as the storm moved north.In Florida, the state's biggest electric company said its outages came to more than 3.6 million by 8:30 a.m. on Monday. A total of 4.2 million Florida Power & Light customers have been affected, with about 570,000 getting service restored, mostly by automated devices.Full restoration of power could take weeks in many areas due to expected damage to FPL's system, the NextEra Energy Inc unit said.As the storm pushed north, outage figures were increasing at other large utilities, including units of Duke Energy Corp, Southern Co and Emera Inc.Duke's outages jumped to more than 860,000 overnight; the company said they could ultimately exceed 1 million. Emera's Tampa Electric utility reported 300,000 homes and businesses lost power by Monday morning.FPL said its two nuclear plants were safe. Both units at its Turkey Point facility, located about 30 miles (48 km) south of Miami, were shut by early Monday.The company closed Turkey Point's Unit 3 on Saturday as Irma approached the coast but decided not shut Unit 4 at that time because the hurricane track shifted away from the plant toward the western part of the Florida Peninsula. FPL, however, shut Unit 4 on Sunday night due to a possible valve issue that was probably not related to Irma, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission officials said on Monday.At its St Lucie nuclear plant located about 120 miles (190 km) north of Miami, FPL started to reduce power at Unit 1 due to salt buildup from Irma in the switchyard, NRC spokesman Roger Hannah said. The plant's other reactor, Unit 2, continued to operate at full power.Duke's retired Crystal River plant, about 90 miles (145 km) north of Tampa, has spent nuclear fuel, but Hannah said that was not a problem.As the storm loomed and came ashore, gasoline stations struggled to keep up as people evacuated Florida. In the Atlanta metropolitan area, about 13.2 percent of stations were out of the fuel, according to information service Gas Buddy.Irma is expected to sap demand for fuel for a time, Goldman Sachs analysts said in a note on Monday, but they cautioned that supply could remain strained due to refining capacity offline in the wake of Hurricane Harvey, which hit Texas two weeks ago.(Reporting by Scott DiSavino and Jessica Resnick-Ault in New York; Additional reporting by Ruthy Munoz in Houston; Editing by Frances Kerry and Lisa Von Ahn)
Tropical Storm Irma floods northern Florida cities after hammering south-[Reuters]-By Zachary Fagenson and Daniel Trotta-YAHOONEWS-September 11, 2017
MIAMI/KISSIMMEE, Fla. (Reuters) - Downgraded from a hurricane to a tropical storm, Irma flooded several northern Florida cities with heavy rain and a high storm surge on Monday as it headed out of the state after cutting power to millions and ripping roofs off homes.Irma, once ranked as one of the most powerful hurricanes recorded in the Atlantic, hit a wide swath of Florida over the past day, first making landfall on the Florida Keys archipelago and then coming ashore south of Naples before heading up the west coast.Now a tropical storm with sustained winds of up to 70 miles per hour (110 km per hour), Irma was located about 35 miles (56 km) west of Gainesville and headed up the Gulf Coast, the National Hurricane Center said at 8 a.m. ET (1200 GMT).The Cuban government reported on Monday that 10 people had been killed after Irma battered the island's north coast with ferocious winds and 36-foot (11-meter) waves over the weekend. This raised the overall death toll from Irma's powerful rampage through the Caribbean to 38.Northeastern Florida cities including Jacksonville were facing flash flooding, with the city's sheriff's office pulling residents from waist-deep water."Stay inside. Go up. Not out," Jacksonville's website warned residents. "There is flooding throughout the city and more rain is expected."-HEART-POUNDING NIGHT-After what she called a terrifying night bunkered in her house in St. Petersburg, on Florida's Gulf Coast, with her children and extended family, Julie Hally emerged with relief on Monday. The winds had toppled some large tree branches and part of a fence, but her house was undamaged."My heart just pounded out of my chest the whole time," said Hally, 37. "You hear stuff hitting your roof. It honestly sounds like somebody is just whistling at your window the whole night. It's really scary."Governor Rick Scott said he would travel later on Monday to the Florida Keys. Irma first came ashore at Cudjoe Key as a Category 4 hurricane with sustained winds of up to 130 mph (215 kph.)U.S. President Donald Trump in a ceremony at the Pentagon to remember the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks vowed a full response to Irma, as well as continued federal support for victims of Hurricane Harvey, which flooded Texas."These are storms of catastrophic severity and we are marshalling the full resources of the federal government to help our fellow Americans," Trump said. "When Americans are in need, Americans pull together and we are one country."The state's largest city, Miami, was spared the brunt of the storm but still saw heavy flooding. Utility crews were already on the streets there clearing downed trees and utility lines. All causeways leading to Miami Beach were closed by police.As it traveled through the center of the state early on Monday, Irma brought gusts of up to 100 mph (160 kph) and torrential rain to areas around Orlando, one of the most popular areas for tourism in Florida because of its cluster of theme parks, the National Weather Service said.A piece of a McDonald's "golden arch" sign hung in a tree near the fast-food restaurant in the central Florida city of Kissimmee on Monday morning. Valerie Gilleece, 55, had ridden out the storm in the city because her wheelchair-bound husband insisted on it, she said."I'm just thanking God to be alive," Gilleece said. "I wanted to go from the start but he's stubborn as hell."Over the weekend, Irma claimed its first U.S. fatality - a man found dead in a pickup truck that had crashed into a tree in high winds in the town of Marathon, in the Florida Keys, local officials said.During its passage through the Caribbean en route to Florida, Irma was ranked at the rare top end of the scale of hurricane intensity, a Category 5, for days. It carried maximum sustained winds of up to 185 mph (295 kph) when it crashed into the island of Barbuda on Wednesday.Ahead of Irma's arrival, some 6.5 million people in southern Florida, about a third of the state's population, were ordered to evacuate their homes. Some 200,000 were housed in shelters during the storm, according to federal officials.-DAMAGE ESTIMATES-The storm did some $20 billion to $40 billion in damage to insured property as it tore through Florida, catastrophe modeling firm AIR Worldwide estimated.That estimate, lower than earlier forecasts of up to $50 billion in insured losses, drove insurance company shares higher on Monday. Florida-based insurers Federated National, HCI Group and Universal Insurance were all up more than 12 percent. Meanwhile, Europe's insurance index was the biggest sectoral gainer, up 2 percent and set for its best day in more than four months.High winds snapped power lines and left about 5.8 million Florida homes and businesses without power, state data showed.Miami International Airport, one of the busiest in the country, halted passenger flights through at least Monday. According to the FlightAware.com tracking site, a total of 3,582 U.S. flights were canceled on Monday, mostly as a result of the storm.Irma was forecast to cross the eastern Florida Panhandle and move into southern Georgia later in the day, dumping as much as 16 inches (41 cm) of rain, government forecasters said.Police in Miami-Dade County said they had made 29 arrests for looting and burglary.(Additional reporting by Bernie Woodall, Ben Gruber and Andy Sullivan in Miami, Letitia Stein in Detroit, Colleen Jenkins in Winston-Salem, N.C., Doina Chiacu and Jeff Mason in Washington, Scott DiSavino in New York and Marc Frank in Havana; Writing by Scott Malone and Jon Herskovitz; Editing by Frances Kerry and Paul Simao)
Hurricane trash pile, removal costs could reach staggering levels-[Reuters]-By Bryan Sims-YAHOONEWS-September 11, 2017
HOUSTON (Reuters) - Even as Texas continues to marshal crews to handle Hurricane Harvey debris, Irma's move up the west coast of Florida on Monday promises to stress the effort and leave a combined bill near or topping the multi-billion dollar tab for Katrina, the largest to date.Officials insist they can manage two large cleanups at once. Throughout the weekend, disaster specialist AshBritt Inc, DRC Emergency Services and waste haulers, including Waste Management and municipal crews brought to Houston, were carting Harvey's rubble to dozens of Texas landfills.Texas disclosed about $136 million in federal funds were released to pay for initial efforts around Houston. The city's mayor, Sylvester Turner, had issued a call for heavy equipment operators to help, but a spokesman said the city has 64 crews at work or soon to arrive, "all the help we need.""It's going to stress the industry from an equipment standpoint," said John Sullivan, chief executive of DRC Emergency Services, said of the two Category 4 storms. His company will split specialized vehicles between Texas and Florida, relying on subcontractors with their own equipment. Clearing Texas's debris will take four to six months, he said.After Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005, the cleanup took about a year, said Hugh Kaufman, a retired EPA solid waste and emergency response analyst. The overall bill for Katrina was $2 billion, the largest to date, spanned several states and the demolition of the more than 23,000 homes in the New Orleans area alone. He thinks the combined clean-up tab will top Katrina's.The Gulf Coast bill "is going to be worse," estimated Kaufman. While Irma's shift west and weakening winds on Monday helped reduce its impact and likely bill, "There are a lot of question marks to know what the exact cost will be," he said, as the storm brings rain and wind to Georgia.Texas's tally of the cost of debris removal by affected counties from Harvey on Monday totaled $118 million, but many communities haven't yet provided estimates. Houston estimates the city's clean-up bill alone will run to $200 million.The scale of the effort isn't reassuring to residents living alongside the mess. Houston's fire chief on Saturday advised residents in severely affected areas to get tetanus shots."Our trash pile has been at our curb for going on two weeks and they aren't telling us when it's going to be picked up," said Melissa Brewer, 38, of Katy, Texas.Meanwhile, smaller businesses looking to hire crews for trash removal in Texas said Irma is affecting availability. "Everyone's shooting down to Florida," said Marcel Yanez, a Missouri contractor who visited Friendswood, south of Houston, for potential work. "The price point is higher," he said.Larger companies are reopening closed Texas facilities. "Our landfills are doubling in volume," said Marcel Darby, an operations director for Waste Management, which is running its landfills seven days a week.Residents say all the three major floods that hit Texas in recent years has given companies and officials the experience to move trash away quickly."They have had enough practice that they're getting quite efficient at it," said Bellaire, Texas, resident Mike McCorkle, 63. He took a break from repairing his home to gaze at the mountain of debris lining his street. "I think they'll need to do it fast because those trucks will be needed in Florida very soon."(Reporting by Bryan Sims and Nick Carey in Houston; Writing by Gary McWilliams and Nick Zieminski)
FPL shuts one reactor in Florida, reduces power at another after Irma-[Reuters]-YAHOONEWS-September 11, 2017
(Reuters) - Florida Power & Light shut Unit 4 at the Turkey Point nuclear power station in Florida Sunday night due to a likely valve issue, and is reducing power at Unit 1 at the St Lucie power plant due to salt build up in the switchyard, a spokesman at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Monday.He could not say whether the Turkey Point 4 outage was related to Hurricane Irma, which battered Florida over the weekend, and he could not say whether FPC planned to shut or just reduce St Lucie 1.(Reporting by Scott DiSavino)
Irma's winds buckle three giant cranes in South Florida-[Reuters]-By Zach Fagenson-YAHOONEWS-September 10, 2017
MIAMI (Reuters) - Cranes at three South Florida high rises under construction collapsed in the face of heavy winds as Hurricane Irma ripped through the area on Sunday, days after authorities warned about dangers to cranes from the approaching storm.No injuries were reported in any of the three collapses, and investigations would begin after the storm cleared, officials said.Soon after one of the cranes collapsed, the chief executive of the company developing the building told Reuters he was attending the U.S. Open tennis tournament in New York when the accident occurred and had just learned about it."This particular crane, some of it was taken down," Jorge Perez, chief executive of The Related Group, Miami's largest developer, said by telephone. "They were surprised that it went down because they felt it was one of the more secure cranes, so we’re right on it."A video posted on Twitter showed the crane's boom dangling above the unfinished building.A crane at a Related Group project in Fort Lauderdale went down later on Sunday, Perez said. He had no immediate details about the incident.High winds also snapped the boom of a crane erected on top of a Miami apartment building under construction. The project was being developed by New York-based Property Markets Group, according to The Real Deal, a South Florida real estate news website.After the collapse, the boom was partly dangling on the side of the building, attached to the crane tower by a cable, photos on Twitter showed. Attempts to reach Property Markets Group offices in New York and Miami were unsuccessful.Miami had been in touch with Perez, but the state of Florida and the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration had jurisdiction over the cranes, City Manager Daniel Alfonso said. No one was immediately available to comment at OSHA or the governor's office.The National Weather Service recorded wind gusts in Miami reaching about 100 miles per hour (160 kph), with sustained winds of 50 to 60 mph (80 to 96 kph), as Irma moved up Florida's west coast.As Irma approached last week, Miami officials said 20 to 25 construction cranes were up across the city and that they were designed to withstand winds of 145 mph (235 kph).It warned that the cranes had to be unpinned, so that their horizontal booms could rotate on their support columns like a weather vane.(Additional reporting by Ian Simpson in Washington; Writing by Ian Simpson; Editing by Sandra Maler and Peter Cooney)
Aid on way to Irma-battered islands as death toll rises-[Associated Press]-ANDREA RODRIGUEZ and DESMOND BOYLAN-YAHOONEWS-September 11, 2017
HAVANA (AP) — With ports mended and weather cleared, Caribbean officials struggled Monday to get aid to islands devastated by Hurricane Irma and tried to take stock of the damage caused by the Category 5 storm.At least 34 people were reported to have been killed in the region, including 10 in Cuba, whose northern coast was raked by the storm. Cuban state media said most of those died in Havana, where seawater surged deep into residential neighborhoods.To the east, in the Leeward Islands known as the playground for the rich and famous, governments came under criticism for failing to respond quickly to the hurricane, which flattened many towns and turned lush, green hills to a brown stubble.Residents have reported food, water and medicine shortages, as well as looting.British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson defended his government's response to what he called an "unprecedented catastrophe" and promised to increase funding for the relief effort. Britain sent a navy ship and almost 500 troops to the British Virgin Islands, Anguilla and the Turks and Caicos islands that were pummeled by the hurricane.The U.S. government said it was sending a flight Monday to evacuate its citizens from St. Martin, one of the hardest-hit islands. Evacuees were warned to expect long lines and no running water at the airport.A Royal Caribbean Cruise Line ship was expected to dock near St. Martin to help in the aftermath, and a boat was bringing a 5-ton crane capable of unloading large shipping containers of aid. A French military ship was scheduled to arrive Tuesday with materials for temporary housing.About 70 percent of the beds at the main hospital in the French portion of St. Martin were severely damaged, and more than 100 people needing urgent medical care were evacuated. Eight of the territory's 11 pharmacies were destroyed, and Guadeloupe was sending medication.French President Emmanuel Macron was scheduled to arrive in St. Martin on Tuesday to bring aid and fend off criticism that he didn't do enough to respond to the storm.The "whole government is mobilized" to help, said Interior Minister Gerard Collomb.Soon after Irma killed 10 people on St. Martin, Category 4 Hurricane Jose threatened the area, halting evacuations for hours before heading out to sea and causing little additional damage.Also hit hard was Cuba, where central Havana neighborhoods along the coast between the Almendares River and the harbor suffered the worst flooding. Seawater penetrated as much as a half-kilometer (one-third of a mile) inland in some places.Cuban state media reported 10 deaths despite the country's usually rigorous disaster preparations. More than 1 million were evacuated from flood-prone areas.Hector Pulpito recounted a harrowing experience at his job as night custodian of a parking lot that flooded five blocks from the sea in Havana's Vedado neighborhood."This was the worst of the storms I have been through, and the sea rose much higher," Pulpito said. "The trees were shaking. Metal roofs went flying."Cuban state television reported severe damage to hotels on the northern keys off Ciego de Avila and Camaguey provinces.The Jardines del Rey airport serving the northern keys was destroyed, the Communist Party newspaper Granma reported, tweeting photos of a shattered terminal hall littered with debris.___Boylan reported from Caibarien, Cuba. Associated Press writer Danica Coto in San Juan, Puerto Rico, contributed.
Mexico rushes aid to millions after huge quake; death toll at 96-[Reuters]-YAHOONEWS-September 11, 2017
JUCHITAN, Mexico (Reuters) - A powerful earthquake that struck Mexico last week has left some 2.5 million people in need of aid and killed 96 others, authorities said on Monday, as officials rushed to get food and water to afflicted communities in the poor south.Oaxaca state governor Alejandro Murat told local television the death toll in his state had risen to 76. He said preliminary reports showed that at least 12,000 homes were damaged, and warned the number was likely to rise.Murat said 1 million people in Oaxaca needed food, water, electricity and help rebuilding damaged homes, while in neighboring Chiapas state, which was closest to the epicenter of the tremor, 1.5 million people were affected, according to officials."We are united in facing this humanitarian crisis," Murat said.The 8.1-magnitude quake off the coast of Chiapas rattled Mexico City and sowed destruction across the narrowest portion of Mexico on the isthmus of Tehuantepec.Sixteen people have been reported dead in Chiapas state and four in neighboring Tabasco. Many of the fatalities in Oaxaca were in the town of Juchitan, where more than 5,000 homes were destroyed.The quake, the most powerful earthquake to hit Mexico in over eight decades, was stronger than a 1985 temblor that killed thousands in Mexico City. However, its greater depth and distance kept the capital from being more serious damaged.President Enrique Pena Nieto on Friday declared three days of national mourning and pledged to rebuild shattered towns and villages.(Reporting by David Alire Garcia in Juchitan and Sheky Espejo in Mexico City; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)
Macron to 'rebuild' EU with citizen conventions-By Eric Maurice-EUOBSERVER
BRUSSELS, 8. Sep, 09:16-French president Emmanuel Macron wants to launch citizens' debates across Europe in order to "rebuild" the EU in a more democratic way."Europe can continue its destiny only if it is chosen and wanted," he said in Athens on Thursday (7 September).In a speech symbolically delivered in "the cradle of democracy", on the Pnyx hill, with the Acropolis behind him, the French leader called on Europeans to "have the courage to find again the path of democracy."He said that he wanted to organise a series of "democratic conventions" in the first half of 2018 in EU countries that were willing to do so.He explained that "the peoples of Europe will be consulted and will debate on principles proposed by the governments."Then a "roadmap for Europe in the next 10 or 15 years" would be elaborated upon the citizens' ideas.Referring to previously lost EU referendums in France, Netherlands, and Ireland, he noted that "the European project was turned down by peoples" but that those peoples "were not heard"."In Europe today, sovereignty, democracy, and trust are in danger," Macron said."We must rediscover the enthusiasm that the union was founded upon and change, not with technocrats and not with bureaucracy," he added.Macron's proposal on conventions was reminiscent of how he launched his own political career last year.He started with a questionnaire to citizens when he created his political movement, which helped him to make a "diagnosis" of voters' expectations ahead of the 2017 elections.His Athens gambit was also part of a strategy to shape EU politics, and to put France and Macron himself centre stage.Macron, who has met almost all EU leaders in recent weeks, has said he will soon make 10 "concrete propositions" to rebuild Europe.He intends to present them after the German elections on 24 September, but before German coalition talks start, so that they can be taken into account in the discussions to elaborate the next German government's programme.Macron gave some indications on Thursday of what he will propose.He said he was in favour of transnational lists for the European elections. He also said that he wanted a eurozone parliament "which would enable the creation of democratic responsibility."The strengthening of the eurozone will form the bulk of Macron's propositions.-Jab at IMF-Repeating ideas first aired last week, the French president said in Athens that he wanted a eurozone budget and a European finance minister. He added that the eurozone should have its own capacity to manage financial crises.He criticised the EU management of the Greek crisis, in particular its call to involve the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in 2010."I don't think it was the right method for the IMF to supervise European programmes and intervene in the way it did," he said, pleasing his Greek hosts."The IMF had no place in EU matters," Macron said.Macron, who received the Order of the Redeemer, Greece's highest decoration, said: "We still find in Greece the exacerbated problems Europe is suffering from."He called for debt relief for Greece and urged the IMF not to ask for new requirements to go down that path.
