Is the End Near? Natural Disasters Abound But That's Nature For You

The Reverend Pat Robertson certainly seems to think so. He thinks that because of Hurricanes like Katrina, Rita, earthquakes, tsunamis, and all manner of natural calamity that we're entering the end time.

I don't think so.

Last time I checked, all of those natural events occur periodically and regularly. Trying to ascribe some religious overtone to these events is a natural thing for people trying to wrap their thoughts around the immensity of the events and why they might have happened.

To me, it's nature just doing what it has always done - its own thing on its own time. Nothing more.

Did you know that Hurricane Stan may have killed more people than Rita and Katrina combined? Forget which storm Stan was? That's okay. I can understand if you've been busy trying to figure out which was worse, the natural disaster in the Gulf Coast or Louisiana's government reaction to the hurricane. Stan ended up being a measly category 1 storm that unleashed mudslides throughout Central America that turned entire towns into mass graves. That should put some perspective on the whole hurricane thing - it doesn't matter how scientists categorize the storm or how strong it is when it makes landfall, the effects depend on local conditions and can result in death and misery for even weaker storms.

Meanwhile, flooding from the remnants of tropical storm Tammy have turned parts of North Jersey into a mud bog and tractor pull as many rivers have flooded and caused damage in flood prone areas in Wayne and Oakland NJ.

The National Weather Service issued flood warnings through this morning for the Ramapo, Passaic and other North Jersey rivers.

The rain contributed to a fatal accident on Route 80 in Knowlton, where a Pennsylvania family's car slid beneath a dump truck. Two-year-old Shawn Belluardo of Tobyhanna died of head injuries, state police said.

The precipitation - nearly 9 inches in some parts of North Jersey - broke records for one-day rainfall, experts said. The Ramapo River spilled over its banks, wind caused sporadic power outages and flooded highways were shut.

Oakland's case is interesting because the flooding appears to be made worse because of the Army Corps of Engineers' flood control project that isn't quite up to snuff (or complete).

And the news about avian flu isn't much better. If you think the US response is bad, consider that it's light years ahead of the rest of the world, where cases of avian flu have been reported among bird populations throughout Asia and some parts of Europe. It is conceivable that it is a matter of time before the flu mutates into a version that can be transmitted from person to person - and if that happens, there isn't much standing in the way of it becoming a pandemic that would put many other natural disasters into the rearview mirror of death and misery.

And to top it off, the South Asian quake appears to have killed more than 20,000 people, though other reports put the death toll much higher.

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