This is very sad. I only hope these people get their lives back in order soon.

However…

Twenty-four hours after Hurricane Ike slammed into Galveston, packing 110-mph winds, rescuers began efforts early Sunday to check on the estimated 20,000 people who failed to heed mandatory evacuation orders.

I guess even the threat of certain death won’t scare some people away.

Speaking of Ike, there’s a silver lining in all of this: Economic damage from Hurricane Ike may be less than feared

Brave Few Plan to Ride Out Ike
By CLAYTON SANDELL

As Hurricane Ike makes its way to the Texas Gulf Coast, the National Weather Service issued a blunt warning to residents of Galveston. “Persons not heeding evacuation orders in single-family, one- or two-story homes, will face certain death.”

Article Continues… (ABC News)

Video can be found here: http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=5788306

Admittedly, I’ve never experienced a hurricane. As natural disasters go, I’ve been through a mild tornado and a couple of blizzards (I’m not sure those were disasters; they were really more annoying than anything), so I may be reading this wrong. However, I would hope the NWS wouldn’t just toss around the term “certain death” casually. According to the guy filling in for Glenn Beck today, there are reports that the entire island of Galveston will probably be under water at some point!

Tell me again, why do people live on the coast?

While I think Ron Paul’s foreign policy is pretty much suicide, I could probably get behind a decent amount of his domestic policies. In this case, I think he may be right; if you’re going to choose to live somewhere that’s prone to natural disasters, you should probably have a plan in place to rebuild at some point; you can’t dodge the bullet forever.

By Shahar Ilan

A major earthquake may destabilize the foundations of Jerusalem-area schools and kill thousands of pupils, a Jerusalem municipal official warned yesterday.

Article Continues… (Haaretz)

Ah, the looming “big one” that’s expected in the Holy Land at any moment. While I try not to linger on prophecy stuff, and I don’t speak in Christian lingo, but my source for this article brought up a few verses:

The study is particularly worrisome because numerous Biblical prophecies in both the Jewish Scriptures (such as Ezekiel 38-39) and the New Testament (Matthew 24:7, Revelation 6:12-17, Revelation 8:5) indicate that major earthquakes will strike Israel and the world in the last days. Many Jewish and Christian Bible scholars believe we are now living in the last days.

Intriguing, yes, but I figure we shouldn’t get so wrapped up in this stuff as to forget that this earthquake will hurt real people. Interesting times are ahead, and we’ll need each other more than ever.