Saturday, January 31, 2009
Friday, January 30, 2009
Eight Major "Acts Of God" That Coincided With the Timing of US Pressure on Israel to Give Up Land
1. October 30, 1991: President George Bush opens the Madrid Conference with an initiative for a Middle East peace plan involving Israel's land.
On the same day,an extremely rare storm forms off the coast of Nova Scotia. (It was eventually tagged "The Perfect Storm," and a book and movie were made about it.) Record-setting 100-foot waves form at sea and pound the New England Coast, even causing heavy damage to President Bush's home in Kennebunkport, Maine.
2. August 23, 1992: The Madrid Conference moves to Washington D.C. and the peace talks resume, lasting four days. On that same day, Hurricane Andrew -- the worst natural disaster ever to hit America -- produces an estimated $30 billion in damage and leaves 180,000 homeless in Florida.
3. January 16, 1994: President Clinton meets with Syria's President Hafez el-Assad in Geneva. They talk about a peace agreement with Israel that includes giving up the Golan Heights. Less than 24 hours later, a powerful 6.9 earthquake rocks Southern California. This quake, centered in Northridge, is the second most destructive natural disaster to hit the United States, behind Hurricane Andrew.
4. March 1 to April 1997: The combination of PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat touring America and Clinton rebuking Israel for not giving away her land for peace coincide with some of the worst tornadoes and flooding in US history. On the very day Arafat lands in America, powerful tornadoes devastate huge sections of the nation, ripping across Texas, Arkansas, Mississippi, Kentucky and Tennessee. Arafat's American tour also coincides with the storms in the Dakotas, which result in the worst flooding of this century, in addition to weeks of major storms throughout the Midwest. Arafat finishes his tour and leaves the US and the storms stop.
5. September 27-28, 1998: Secretary of State Madeleine Albright works on the final details of an agreement in which Israel will give up 13 percent of Yesha. The same day Hurricane Georges slams into the Gulf Coast with 110 mph winds and gusts up to 175. The hurricane hits the coast and stalls. On September 28, Clinton meets with Arafat and Netanyahu at the White House to finalize the land deal. Later, Arafat addresses the United Nations about declaring an independent Palestinian state by May 1999, while Hurricane Georges pounds the Gulf Coast causing $1 billion in damage. At the exact time Arafat departs the US the storm begins to dissipate.
6. October 15-22, 1998: On October 15, 1998, Arafat and Benjamin Netanyahu meet at the Wye River Plantation in Maryland, to continue the talks which ended on September 28. The talks are scheduled to last five days with the focus on Israel giving up 13 percent of Yesha. The talks are extended and conclude on October 23.
October 1998 Texas Flooding was a flood event that occurred across parts of South Texas and Southeast Texas on the weekend of October 17 and October 18, 1998. The storm that caused it was one of the costliest in the recorded meteorological history of the United States, bringing rainfall of over 20 inches (510 mm) to some parts of Southeast Texas and causing over upwards of $1 Billion in damages. 31 people were killed as a result of the storm, mostly from drowning.
7. May 3, 1999: This is the same day in Israel that Yasser Arafat is scheduled to declare a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as the capital. The declaration is postponed to December 1999 at the request of President Clinton, whose letter to Arafat encourages him for his "aspirations for his own land." He also writes that the Palestinians have a right to "determine their own future on their own land," and that they deserve to "live free, today, tomorrow and forever." That same day, starting at 4:47 pm CDT, the most powerful tornado storm system ever to hit the United States sweeps across Oklahoma and Kansas. The winds are clocked at 316 mph the fastest wind speed ever recorded.
The 1999 Oklahoma tornado outbreak was a severe weather event that lasted from May 3 until May 6, 1999 and brought violent storms to Oklahoma, Kansas, Arkansas, and Tennessee. This article concentrates on the events on May 3, when 66 tornadoes broke out in Oklahoma and Kansas. The most significant tornado first touched down southwest of Chickasha, Oklahoma, and became an F5 before dissipating over Midwest City, Oklahoma. The tornado tore through Bridge Creek, Oklahoma and Moore, Oklahoma, causing $1.1 billion in damage. Forty-eight people perished during the outbreak. This tornadic event ranks in severity with
the Palm Sunday tornado outbreak of 1965. With a total of 66 tornadoes,
it was the most prolific tornado outbreak in Oklahoma history, although not the deadliest.
8. August 29, 2005: Exactly one week after Israel's Prime Minister Ariel Sharon completed the forcible eviction of Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip, hurricane Katrina struck the states of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama with a destructive and catastrophic force. 80% of the entire city of New Orleans was left under water. Many weather experts called this the worse hurricane and natural disaster that has ever hit this country. President Bush supported Sharon's evacuation from Gaza. In April 2005 Bush and Sharon met in Crawford, Texas where Bush praised Sharon for his "strong visionary leadership" in initiating the Gaza withdrawal, known as the disengagement plan. "I strongly support his courageous initiative to disengage from Gaza and part of the West Bank," he said, referring to the withdrawal of more than 8,000 Jewish settlers from Gaza and four isolated West Bank settlements.
Costliest U.S. Atlantic hurricanes
Cost refers to total estimated property damage.
Rank | Hurricane | Season | Cost (2008 USD) |
1 | Katrina | $89.6 billion | |
2 | $40.7 billion | ||
3 | $22.7 billion | ||
4 | $22.4 billion | ||
5 | $18.6 billion | ||
Main article: List of costliest Atlantic hurricanes | |||