The K Mills

I write it. You read it. That's it.

The End Is Upon Us.

It’s been an interesting month, weather-wise, and much of it affecting places I’ve lived (and the family and friends we love). So I thought I’d share my thoughts on it all.

First, there was the whole haboob (love that word) in Lubbock on October 17th.

Basically, a mile-high wall of dust and debris swept its way through Lubbock in a matter of minutes. It was enough to block out the sun in some places, I’ve been told. Pretty freaky stuff, without question.

Then there was the earthquake in Oklahoma last Saturday. And Sunday. And again on Monday night. Uncommon an unexpected are the words that come to mind. (As well as freaky, terrifying and earth-shaking…)

The ego-centric part of me look at all this and says “Huh. Two uncommon, natural disasters take place within weeks of each other, and both in places I used to live. What does it all mean?” But rather than conclude that my mere presence wards off natural disasters, I basically shrug it off and go my merry way.

Except I can’t. My brain won’t let me. It keeps analyzing and over-analyzing and trying to decipher it all. When talking with a friend of mine this week, he insisted that we are, in fact, in “the end times.” I debated with him on this, explaining that there have always been “end times” events, and that people in general get spun up when 1) a new century or millennium comes around, or 2) a rash of unexpected natural calamities strike in close sequence.

He adamantly said that he’d been studying both scripture and weather patterns the past few years, and holds fast to his conclusions. When we hung up, I didn’t really give it any other thought. He had his opinion, and I had mine. But after reading a couple of articles this week I think I just might change my point of view.

Exhibit A – The Sudden Spikes in Extreme Outbursts

“The national economic toll for extreme weather so far this year is estimated at $35 billion, more than five times the average annual loss.”

“April spawned 875 tornado reports — the 30-year average for the month is 135.”

“Oklahoma typically had about 50 earthquakes annually until 2009. Last year, 1,047 quakes shook the state.”

http://articles.latimes.com/2011/aug/24/nation/la-na-extreme-weather-20110824

http://www.kansascity.com/2011/11/07/3253578/another-oklahoma-earthquake-felt.html#ixzz1d5DRJDIg

Exhibit B – FEMA’s First-Ever Nationwide Emergency Alert Test Today

“Why now?

Here’s how FEMA explains it:

We need to know that the system will work as intended should public safety officials ever need to send an alert or warning to a large region of the United States. Only a complete test of the Emergency Alert System can help us identify any changes and improvements needed to modernize this system and make it fully accessible.

Although FEMA says there have been local emergency alert tests in the past, none has been broadcast to all regions of the USA at the same time.”

My Conclusions:

Wow. It’d be easy to dismiss my friend’s rants about the weather and end times if the statistics didn’t back up his point so well. Seems like things are 5x as bad as they have been on many fronts (20x as bad in Oklahoma earthquake terms). That’s some pretty steep rampage, people. It’s hard to ignore.

And FEMA? Suddenly conducting a nationwide test? Well, call me a skeptic, but I’m guessing there’s more of a reason to make sure things work than, well, just to make sure things work. Throw in the speculation on how the solar flares are gonna affect us the next year, and it kind of makes you wonder.

ARE we in the end times? What do you think? 2 years? 5? Another 20 or 50 before things go kablooey? What say thee?

  • Austin Jones says:

    Not sure about the Oklahoma earthquakes, but I’ve heard some oil drilling techniques put the ground at a greater chance of quaking.

    I’d also like to see how many larger tornadoes there have been recently. A lot of the increase is just a greater prevalence of reporting (mostly smaller tornadoes). The greater cost could also be attributed to inflation and the huge hoards of electronics I, er, we have. There are also a heck of a lot more of us per square mile.

    All that said, I think the Mayans might be right — 2012 is supposed to be a doosey for solar flares.

    November 9, 2011 at 4:15 pm
  • Kevin says:

    Good points! I’d read that the “fracking” in Oklahoma wasn’t enough to cause the quakes, but then again, if you’re a professional fracker and you DID make it more likely this stuff happened? It’s not like you’re going to call up a newspaper and say “Uh, yeah… we screwed up.”

    Please. This is America 2011. Pass the buck. Shun responsibility.

    Deny. Deny. Deny.

    November 9, 2011 at 4:19 pm

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