A natural phenomenon more common for America, a tornado, has hit the South of France shocking locals and holidaymakers on the Côte d'Azur, the Mediterranean coastline.
As thousands in Central Europe are struggling to cope with devastating floods which have already claimed the lives of at least 21 people, a tornado ripped through the French Riviera on Sunday morning.
The violently rotating column of air and water formed off the coast not far from popular resort towns of Cannes and Nice.
The phenomenon was observed from the Cagnes-sur-Mer commune in southeastern France, rising off to Villeneuve-Loubet and Antibes, reports Nicematin.com.
So far, no damage or injury has been reported.
The incident is being widely discussed on social networking services where users – some of them freaked out others rather thrilled - share videos and photos of the “tornado.”
“OMG there was a mini tornado in my town today. In Nice!” tweeted user nicknamed Sachamallow.
“There's been a tornado in Cannes. I bet the end of the world is approaching! we're all gonna die you, will see,” noted @Amaandarine.
via http://www.transients.info/2013/05/at-least-26-tornadoes-touched-down-in.html CNN has an article written up below discussing the situation. As many as 26 tornadoes have been reported to have touched down in Oklahoma, Kansas, Illinois and Iowa on Sunday in the US. These tornadoes caused widespread damage. One death has been reported in Pottawatomie County, Oklahoma.
This is a webbot IDIR hit as Clif High specifically mentioned an increase in tornado activity recently. We should be expecting this over in Europe as well, and possibly other locations around the World.
A tornado touches down southwest of Wichita near the town of Viola, Kan., on Sunday. The tornado was part of a line of storms that passed through the Central Plains states. - Travis Heying / MCT via Zuma Press
Via cnn.com, 20 May 2013 - CNN) -- At least one person was killed Sunday when a string of tornadoes ripped through four states, tearing roofs off homes, downing power lines and tossing trees like matchsticks. The death happened in Pottawatomie County, Oklahoma, said Sheriff Mike Booth. He had no details. Booth said that two other people are missing at a trailer park in that county. Rescue crews were picking through the mangled metal remains of mobile homes as darkness fell Sunday. See funnel cloud in Oklahoma See massive tornado in Kansas
As many as 26 tornadoes were reported in Oklahoma, Kansas, Illinois and Iowa, according to the National Weather Service, with Oklahoma and Kansas being the hardest hit.
Some of those reports might have been of the same tornado.
Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin declared a state of emergency Sunday for 16 counties.
One touched down near Wellston, Oklahoma, taking out power lines and damaging several homes, according to video from CNN affiliate KFOR. The affiliate's helicopter pilot estimated the funnel cloud to be about a half-mile wide.
"It's tearing up everything," the pilot said. "Just ripping everything up in its sight."
Aerial video from KFOR and CNN affiliate KOCO showed severe damage near Wellston and near Carney, Oklahoma. Roofs were ripped from homes, branches stripped from trees and roads were filled with debris.
Tornadoes were also reported east of Dale, west of Paden, and near Prague in Oklahoma.
Part of Interstate 40 in Shawnee, Oklahoma, was shut down in both directions Sunday night after a tornado touched down there, overturning multiple tractor-trailers.
Still more tornadoes were spotted in Iowa, near Earlham, Huxley and east of Dallas Center, according to the weather service.
It did not mince words, telling people to take cover there, as elsewhere.
"You could be killed if not underground or in a tornado shelter. Complete destruction of neighborhoods, businesses and vehicles will occur. Flying debris will be deadly to people and animals," it said in its Kansas advisory.
The twisters are part of a severe weather outbreak that is sweeping through parts of Kansas, Oklahoma, Iowa and Missouri as the storms sweep east.
Baseball-sized hail, wind gusts and tornadoes are threatening to pummel parts of the central Plains and Midwest through Monday.
Beyond the Midwest, other areas were already seeing severe weather on Sunday. In Atlanta, serious flooding was reported amid storms producing heavy rainfall.
Here's a quick look at CNN meteorologist Melissa Le Fevre's forecast for Monday:
Kansas The surface front may stall on Monday, leading to showers and thunderstorms through the day. Localized heavy rainfall may lead to the need for flood watches and warnings.
Oklahoma There is a threat for strong storms in the late afternoon. With the heavy rain that will occur through the weekend, flooding could become a problem Monday night.
Iowa Showers and storms are expected to develop on Monday afternoon. Large hail is possible and though the tornado threat looks low, it cannot be ruled out.
Missouri Flooding is expected to become an issue after localized heavy rainfall. Afternoon storms could produce large hail, damaging wind gusts and possible tornadoes. In St. Louis, storms will reorganize during the afternoon and evening hours. Threats include large hail, damaging winds and the possibility of tornadoes.
15 However, if you do not obey the LORD your God and do not
carefully follow all his commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these
curses will come upon you and overtake you:
16 You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the country.
17 Your basket and your kneading trough will be cursed.
18 The fruit of your womb will be cursed, and the crops of your
land, and the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks.
19 You will be cursed when you come in and cursed when you go out.
20 The LORD will send on you curses, confusion and rebuke in
everything you put your hand to, until you are destroyed and come to sudden
ruin because of the evil you have done in forsaking him.
21 The LORD will plague you with diseases until he has destroyed
you from the land you are entering to possess.
22 The LORD will strike you with wasting disease, with fever and
inflammation, with scorching heat and drought, with blight and mildew, which
will plague you until you perish.
23 The sky over your head will be bronze, the ground beneath you
iron.
24 The LORD will turn the rain of your country into dust and powder;
it will come down from the skies until you are destroyed.
According to God’s Law, the land will be judged if it is full of
sins. Nature won't work for humans anymore. Rather, natural disasters become
people's judgment.
Genesis 3:17-18
17 To Adam he said, "Because you listened to your wife and
ate from the tree about which I commanded you, 'You must not eat of it,'
"Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of
it all the days of your life.
18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat
the plants of the field.
Leviticus 18:24-28
24 " 'Do not defile yourselves in any of these ways, because
this is how the nations that I am going to drive out before you became defiled.
25 Even the land was defiled; so I punished it for its sin, and
the land vomited out its inhabitants.
26 But you must keep my decrees and my laws. The native-born and
the aliens living among you must not do any of these detestable things,
27 for all these things were done by the people who lived in the
land before you, and the land became defiled.
28 And if you defile the land, it will vomit you out as it vomited
out the nations that were before you.
Isaiah 24:1-6
1 See, the LORD is going to lay waste the earth and devastate it;
he will ruin its face and scatter its inhabitants-
2 it will be the same for priest as for people, for master as for
servant, for mistress as for maid, for seller as for buyer, for borrower as for
lender, for debtor as for creditor.
3 The earth will be completely laid waste and totally plundered.
The LORD has spoken this word.
4 The earth dries up and withers, the world languishes and
withers, the exalted of the earth languish.
5 The earth is defiled by its people; they have disobeyed the
laws, violated the statutes and broken the everlasting covenant.
6 Therefore a curse consumes the earth; its people must bear their
guilt. Therefore earth's inhabitants are burned up, and very few are left.
Jeremiah 3:2-3
2 "Look up to the barren heights and see. Is there any place
where you have not been ravished? By the roadside you sat waiting for lovers,
sat like a nomad in the desert. You have defiled the land with your
prostitution and wickedness.
3 Therefore the showers have been withheld, and no spring rains
have fallen. Yet you have the brazen look of a prostitute; you refuse to blush
with shame.
Ezekiel 33:25-28
25 Therefore say to them, 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says:
Since you eat meat with the blood still in it and look to your idols and shed
blood, should you then possess the land?
26 You rely on your sword, you do detestable things, and each of
you defiles his neighbor's wife. Should you then possess the land?'
27 "Say this to them: 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says:
As surely as I live, those who are left in the ruins will fall by the sword,
those out in the country I will give to the wild animals to be devoured, and
those in strongholds and caves will die of a plague.
28 I will make the land a desolate waste, and her proud strength
will come to an end, and the mountains of Israel will become desolate so that
no one will cross them.
Micah 1:1-5
1 The word of the LORD that came to Micah of Moresheth during the
reigns of Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah--the
vision he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.
2 Hear, O peoples, all of you, listen, O earth and all who are in
it, that the Sovereign LORD may witness against you, the Lord from his holy
temple.
3 Look! The LORD is coming from his dwelling place; he comes down
and treads the high places of the earth.
4 The mountains melt beneath him and the valleys split apart, like
wax before the fire, like water rushing down a slope.
5 All this is because of Jacob's transgression, because of the
sins of the house of Israel.
What is Jacob's transgression? Is it not Samaria?
What is Judah's
high place? Is it not Jerusalem?
Zephaniah 1:2-4
2 "I will sweep away everything from the face of the
earth," declares the LORD.
3 "I will sweep away both men and animals; I will sweep away
the birds of the air and the fish of the sea. The wicked will have only heaps
of rubble when I cut off man from the face of the earth," declares the
LORD.
4 "I will stretch out my hand against Judah and against all who live in Jerusalem. I will cut off
from this place every remnant of Baal, the names of the pagan and the
idolatrous priests-
Hosea 4:1-3
1 Hear the word of the LORD, you Israelites, because the LORD has
a charge to bring against you who live in the land: "There is no
faithfulness, no love, no acknowledgment of God in the land.
2 There is only cursing, lying and murder, stealing and adultery;
they break all bounds, and bloodshed follows bloodshed.
3 Because of this the land mourns, and all who live in it waste
away; the beasts of the field and the birds of the air and the fish of the sea
are dying.
Although the “judgment towards the land because of sins” principle
isn’t accepted by scientists generally, they even label it as superstitious,
unreasonable and unscientific, obviously, the droughts, crop failures,
epidemics and the well-known massive animal deaths are warnings , warning
people that natural disasters occur because of people’s sins.
Although scientists and unfaithful Christians don’t believe that,
they can't save the land from ever-increasing disasters though!
~ A 9 magnitude earthquake and tsunami in Japan on March 11 last
year
~ The worst drought in 60 years in the middle and lower courses of
the Yangtzi River last year
~ Mount Etna in Italy erupted violently on May 12 last year
~ Sakurajima volcano in Japan erupted on May 12 this year,
discharging to the sky endlessly.
~ A devastating drought occurred in Mexico late last year. 2.5
million people lacked both food and water. 1.7 million cattle died of thirst.
~ Tornado disaster in the U.S. in April this year
~ 900 pelicans and 5,000 dolphins washed to the shore of Peru in
May this year.
The Bible has already warned that the land will be judged because
of people’s sins. We, as the chosen people, must be alert. We must stay away
from sins, lower ourselves and pray, seeking God’s Face.
2 Chronicles 7:12-14
12 the LORD appeared to him at night and said: "I have heard
your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a temple for sacrifices.
13 "When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or
command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people,
14 if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves
and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear
from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.
