China Earthquake, Florida Fires, US Tornadoes, Burma Cyclone Ravage The Angry Earth

***UPDATE TUESDAY, MAY 13***

China Earthquake:
The AP is reporting today on another major school collapse triggered by the 7.9 magnitude earthquake that struck China Monday. This collapse has buried an additional 1,000 students and teachers. AP also reports that Chinese authorities have raised the death toll to nearly 12,000 and say that over 18,000 are missing.

Chinese state media is reporting that another 1,000 students and teachers are dead or missing after a massive earthquake crushed a high school.

The official Xinhua News Agency said Tuesday that the school collapsed in Beichuan county, just east of the epicenter of Monday's 7.9-magnitude earthquake.

Florida Wildfires: CNN reports that Gov. Charlie Crist has declared a state of emergency in Florida:

Florida Gov. Charlie Crist declared a state of emergency Monday as wildfires fed by drought conditions threatened homes and businesses and forced the closing of part of Interstate 95 in Brevard County.

Seven to 10 structures, including some homes, have been destroyed by the largest of the fires, said Yvonne Martinez of the Palm Bay Fire Department.

"The fire situation has been very unpredictable," she said. "The winds have basically caused what fires we had yesterday to jump a half a mile at a time."

Burma Cyclone: HuffPost contributor Hanna Ingber Win reported that local corruption was hampering recovery efforts in Burma:

In the midst of a massive humanitarian crisis in Burma in which 1.5 million people are at risk of dying from disease, local government officials in Rangoon have been selling aid and bribing residents in order to turn a profit, according to sources in Rangoon. It has been eight days since Cyclone Nargis wiped out entire villages along the Irrawaddy delta and left Rangoon in shambles, but the ruling junta has prevented relief efforts from barely making a dent in the recovery process.

Government officials have stolen donations of rice, cooking oil and diesel and sold them on the black market, a businessman in Rangoon said on Sunday. In several townships around the major city, the government announced that it would provide a certain amount of rice and cooking oil to each household, but local township officers were found refusing families their quotas and instead selling the goods on the black market.

US Tornadoes: The AP reported that 22 people were killed in tornadoes that swept across the central U.S.:

More than a third of the 22 people killed by a tornado that smashed parts of Oklahoma and Missouri over the weekend died in cars, troubling experts who say vehicles are one of the worst places to be during a twister.

"It's like taking a handful of Matchbox cars and rolling them across the kitchen floor," said Sgt. Dan Bracker of the Missouri State Highway Patrol, surveying the damage in and around Seneca, near the Oklahoma line, the hardest hit area. "This is devastating."

Among those killed were three people in Oklahoma who were rushing to reach a relative's house in their car; a woman whose car was blown off a road near Seneca; and four family members _ Rick Rountree, his wife, his 13-year-old son, and his mother-in-law _ who were in a van on the way to a friend's wedding when a twister packing winds of 170 mph struck the Seneca area on Saturday night.

Comments

[lizr]

Huff po Censors-

how is it that you deleted my post about animism and consciousness that I worked so hard on and left in the two inane poems further down?

So unfair to abuse your power like this.

You suck.

[lewes17266]

some of my posts are gone now too
i don't care

[drricklippin]

Common Huff Post Editors!

Very Stupid phrase in title = "Angry Earth"

Plays into evangelicals saying natural catastrophies are "God's or Nature's wrath for man's evil deeds"

You can do betterr than that!

Print a retraction? Thanks

Dr. Rick Lippin
Southampton, Pa.

[JMEB]

Exactly.

After a *natural* disaster, there are always those that come out and say the innocents who perished "deserved it" for not following whatever dogma they're peddling.

It's sickening.

An earthquake is most certainly NOT a consequence of global warming, any more than it is a divine act of retribution.

[drricklippin]

thanks

Rick Lippin

[KQuarksSuperKollider]

Mother Earth is pissed and she's pissed at that infestations called human kind. Face it no other species has had such a negative impact on the planet. We need to stop raping Mother Earth or she will get her revenge by evicting our species.

[ejay579]

Just heard on MSNBC that Roy Roemer of Colorado is switching from the Drama Queen to Obama as well as the mayor of New Orleans.

[Careful]

Roy Roemer is going to be the mayor of New Orleans?

[lizr]

LOL- thanks for the silliness; a little absurdity is always welcome.

[MissingAmerica]

The Chinese really said it in one sentence. A representative was touring a devastated area and was reassuring the people not to give up. In the same breath with which he said they should not give up hope yet, he said, "We still have buildings, and we can rebuild the manufacturing plants to be better than before." It seems they care more about "their" manufacturing than they do about the toll in human lives. It seems this would be a great time to bring the American corporations back to America where they can get their old manufacturing plants back.

As for the people in China and elsewhere in the middle of this devastation, blessings to all of you. You are in our hearts and prayers.

[lizr]

Excellent points.

[alaintex]

You are right.


The Chinese got it backwards.


First you have to say blessings to the 12,000 dead and 18,000 missing.


Then figure out how we can get back thoset 30,000 manufacturing jobs that the big corporations out-sourced.

[wonderingstar]

MissingAmerica, If my livelihood and family depended on my job at the factory, and the factory was destroyed, I think I'd be pretty happy to hear they were going to rebuild it and I'd get my job back. I don't think it means that people matter less than factories over there.

To say, as our politicians did at the site of a disaster, that "we're going to rebuild New Orleans" or "we're going to rebuild a new tower at Ground Zero" doesn't by itself mean that people are not respected. They are expressions of hope and sometimes that's what people need to hear to persevere.

The question is how much genuine effort and resources will go to restore normal life in these places of devastation. Restoring the workplaces (whether factories or jazz clubs or office buildings) is an important part of bringing back normalcy and self-sufficiency to the disaster victims. I wouldn't dismiss its importance to the disaster victims.

[Crowhaul]

I just got off messenger with my brother, who is at the epicenter right now. He lives and works at one of the schools that was hit pretty hard. He said he had just begun the after-lunch class when the walls started coming down around him. The quake, he said, lasted a good two minutes. He and his students made it out. He had his hands full trying to reduce the hysteria. The authorities would not let him back inside his house, but he waited til the power was back on, snuck in, and jumped online to let us know he was ok. He said it's true that there is no running water, and all the food has dissapeared from the store shelves. He said everyone is living on the streets. And the aftershocks have been huge. And the rain is coming down in torrents..­.

[lewes17266]

I am glad your brother is fine, and his class.

It must have been terror.

[NYCIC]

Maybe nature heard Kurt Vonnegut when he wondered why the earth doesn't just rid itself of our presence through violent upheaval. It's not we'd be missed by anyone.

[fisharefreinds]

Again, save the Earth
Kill yourself

[realwoman]

Wow. You must be the life of a party.

[nerakami]

Man continues to screw the earth in his pursuit of greed and selfishness giving no thought to preservation or maintaining a balance in our existence.­... and when "it is time to reap the seeds we plant', in true character, man turns the blame onto God. How childish we still are in our mental evolution.­...

When we strip the land of trees, pollute our rivers and seas, destroy the ozone, create garbage that is not bio-degradable eventually tipping the balance of the natural order of the environmen­t.... there are consequences which affect all of us. The depletion of the rain forest in Brazil wrecks havoc on the entire earth. Releases of toxic gases in China enters the atmosphere and affects us here in the US therefore, we are more connected than we think which means it will take a global effort to restore God's delicate balance in the existence of all things.

[lizr]

Yes, the clearcutting of trees in the rainforests, the island of plastic in the Pacific that is killing the seabirds, the pollution from fossil fuel...

Environmental studies should be required in our schools so that our young industrialists could get a clue how they are shi*&ing in their own backyard - and ours.

[Careful]

While what you say is true, it has absolutely nothing to do with this earthquake.

[julieeiluj]

It is kinda sad and crazy to blame natural disasters that destroy large numbers of human life on anyone but ourselves. It is not a form of punishment, or biblical signs. Our planet has been doing this since its birth. Our overpopulation and ill planning is to blame for human disasters. When an earthquake claims so many lives it is because of the buildings that collapsed on them. Tornadoes, although they are becoming more frequent and intense, kill humans cause they are there. I do believe that this all may pale in comparison to what we are in form in the coming century if we do not get our act together. Sounds like an impossible task, but woe is us i think if we dont.

[alaintex]

"Tornadoes, although they are becoming more frequent and intense, "



Maybe not.




1) Population growth has resulted in more tornadoes being reported.

2) Advances in weather radar, particularly the deployment of about 100 Doppler radars across the U.S. in the mid-1990s, has resulted in a much higher tornado detection rate.

3) Tornado damage surveys have grown more sophisticated over the years. For example, we now commonly classify multiple tornadoes along a damage path that might have been attributed to just one twister in the past.

The "official word" on climate science, the 2007 United Nations IPCC report, stated it thusly: "There is insufficient evidence to determine whether trends exist in small scale phenomena such as tornadoes, hail, lighting, and dust storms."

[alaintex]

"Tornadoes, although they are becoming more frequent and intense, "



Maybe not.




Tornadoes are categorized using the Enhanced Fujita (EF) scale, which is based on damage. So, if a violent tornado happens to sweep through empty fields and never destroy any structures, it will never be rated as a violent tornado.

So, if the number of violent tornadoes has remained constant over the years, we should expect to see some increase in these storms over the decades, since more buildings have been erected in the paths of tornadoes.

However, if we look at the statistics of violent U.S. tornadoes since 1950, there does not appear to be any increase in the number of these storms.

In fact, there were 10 violent tornadoes in the 90’s and only one of EF5 intensity reported during the eight year period 2000-2007, the tornado that devastated Greensburg, Kansas in 2007.

[Troubledgoodangel]

Yes, the world needs to get its act together in a hurry. But it is not about what you think. The problem is not global warming! The more urgent problem is the greed of a few ... destroying the chances of survival for many! We must redistribute the earth's resources which God created for all! Such redistribution will reignite the fire of universal peace and solidarity, which in turn will reduce global warming!

[StanTheManic]

Want to help?

Pray.

[julieeiluj]

And change.

[Mike169]

For what exactly? That god will bring people back to life? That he kills or burns no else? That he leave us alone altogether?

[lizr]

Well, some concertrated thinking about Cause and Effect might be in order too!

I am gathering that no one posting here has ever heard of the

EARTH CHANGES

or the HOPI PROPHECIES??

While you boyz and girlz are googling, add those terms to your list..

There is more to life than what you are seeing....

[only1Demvoter]

Stan : ... Now, that's funny.


-ralph

[groovychaos]

according to pastor Hagee, that means they must have been planning huge gay pride parades in all of these locations

[robodweeb]

I heard Hagee say the other day that the Anti-Christ was running the UN.

It's probably his doing.

[k6007]

Mother Nature, in her infinite wisdom, tucked oil, and coal, where it belonged, deep UNDER the ground. Humans thought they knew best. Who do you think had it right?

[alaintex]

Better to burn down all the trees for heat and light.

[julieeiluj]

I cannot believe how many stupid people there are in the world....y­ou are one of them.

[lizr]

Yeah, the fact that we could get enough solar power in the Mojave Desert for all our needs has not yet penetrated­..

well it wouldnt work I guess- because it would be too hard for the oil companies to monopolize the profits.

[bobo209]

Toni dreams for the Ice Age to return.
He wants England to drift
To the shores of New York.
He wants to share his ideas with George.
Afghanistan and Iraq are pretty much done.
He wants Syria and Iran
Squeezed like a lemon.
He’s tired of diplomacy.
His thirst for fresh blood is unbearable.
Brits don’t want him to kill more,
But aren’t doing a damn thing to stop him.

The Invisible Sword comes last.
We don’t know the Knight’s name.
We know for certain he is not an Arab.
We know for certain he is not a Jew.
We know for certain he is not a Yankee.
We know for certain he is not a Brit.
We know for certain he is coming!

[lizr]

OK who's Tom?

Or are you just frankly delusional?

Let us know so we don't have to work too hard on your post, thanks.

[bobo209]

George in his own space
Stands on a ball of fire
The size of Texas.

He sizzles, he fizzles;
He reaches an absolute meltdown.
The earth beneath him cracks;

He seeps into the cracks
Dragging with him yellow smoke.
You would think he’s gone!

His genes were baked in Hell.
Devils don’t die
They change forms.

George is not from your specie;
He is a man without a soul.
He is the killer above the law!

[williamina]

lay off the meth

[lizr]

LMAO

[karela]

Mother Earth is not angry. She is just doing what she needs to do to keep herself in balance. It is hard on us humans at times, but it would be far harder on us if the earth didn't take care of balancing itself because before long, the earth would be unable to sustain life. My love and prayers go to those who grieve today, but there is no need to curse the earth. She is doing what she must do.