WORLD NEWS UPDATE!

 

May 28, 2002 

Jesus of Siberia

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 Four thousand feet up a mountain deep in the Siberian taiga, the middle-aged man appears in a velvet crimson robe, long brown hair framing a beatific smile. He sits down in a log cabin perched on the brow of the hill. It is a room with a stunning view. The snowy Sayan mountains sparkle in the distance. The silver and pink of the birch forests shimmer in the clear sunlight. Down to the right, the pure blue water of Lake Tiberkul mesmerises. Behind the cabin, for much further than the eye can see - a thousand kilometres - the Siberian wilderness stretches, bereft of human habitation.
"It's all very complicated," he starts quietly. "But to keep things simple, yes, I am Jesus Christ. That which was promised must come to pass. And it was promised in Israel 2,000 years ago that I would return, that I would come back to finish what was started. I am not God. And it is a mistake to see Jesus as God. But I am the living word of God the Father. Everything that God wants to say, he says through me."
Meet the Messiah of Siberia, Vissarion Christ - the Teacher, as he is known to his thousands of disciples, who are convinced that he is the reincarnation of Jesus of Nazareth, come back to earth to save the world.

"He radiates incredible love," sighs Hermann, 57, a Bavarian engineer who is now selling his home in Germany to join the self-proclaimed messiah of the taiga. "I met Vissarion last August. He told me we had to follow two laws. It was like an electric shock, like bells ringing."
To find Vissarion, you fly 3,700km east from Moscow to the southern Siberian town of Abakan, north of the Mongolian border, then drive for six hours along rutted roads through a string of villages. Where the road ends in a rollercoaster of craters, the bog begins, and you trudge knee-deep in mud and ice for three hours before the final ascent to the "saviour", a steep hour's climb up a mountain path.
To witness the lives of these New Age dropouts in the hamlets of Kuragino, Imisskoye, Petropavlovka and Cheremshanka is to get an inkling of how things must have been in 17th-century New England for the pilgrim fathers toiling away at their new Jerusalem.
"Life is so hard here," says Denis, a 21-year-old Russian emigre who arrived last week from Brisbane to see if Vissarion really was the answer to his questions. "No doubt about it, mate," he affirms. "Definitely the Son of God."
To his critics in the established churches who accuse him of brainwashing and embezzling his followers, Vissarion is a charlatan deluding the devotees of "a destructive, totalitarian sect". More prosaically, he is Sergei Torop, a 41-year-old former traffic cop and factory worker from Krasnodar in southern Russia, who moved to Siberia as a youth, experienced his awakening a decade ago, and now leads one of the biggest and most remote religious communes on the planet.
Combining new age eclecticism with medieval monasticism, the "Vissarionites", clustered in around 30 rural settlements in southern Siberia, now number around 4,000. They are unquestioningly dedicated to their guru. They utter his name in hushed tones. They decorate their homes, temples and workplaces with his image. They reverentially swap tales of the Teacher's every act or word. They pore over his four fat volumes of musings. His aphorisms are learned by rote and regurgitated daily.
Vissarion - like all the followers of his "Church of the Last Testament", he goes by his adopted first name only - is untroubled by this cult of personality and its sinister resonance in Russian history. "It depends how a person uses my image," he explains. "Man has to bow down to the Father. But it is a mystery and the image enables a person to connect with me. The image can help in that sense, strengthen his efforts."
Vissarion's commune is governed by arcane rituals, laws, symbols, prayers, hymns, and a new calendar. A strict code of conduct is enforced: no vices are permitted. Veganism is compulsory for all, though exceptions can be made for infants and lactating mothers, who are allowed sour milk products (if they can find them). There is no animal husbandry. Monetary exchange is banned within the commune, and only reluctantly allowed with the outside world.
"We're not allowed to smoke, or swear, or drink," laughs Larissa, a glowing 28-year-old mother of three who arrived here from Moscow with her mother as an 18-year-old. "Everything is banned here. We're not allowed to do anything except fall in love."
The devotees include Russian musicians, actresses, teachers, doctors, former Red Army colonels, an ex-deputy railways minister of Belarus, as well as a growing band of adherents from western Europe. They drink the sap of the birch trees that they fell for housing, tools and furniture. They live off berries, nuts and mushrooms gathered in the forest. They scratch potatoes, cabbage and Jerusalem artichokes from the unyielding soil. They barter handicrafts and vegetables for buckwheat and barley from nearby villages. "Man can live in any extreme conditions," Vissarion pronounces, a permanent Mona Lisa smile playing on his lips. "Of course it is hard, especially for intellectuals and those used to working in the towns. But it is important for people to see themselves and to see one another. That is easier when the toil is hard. There is salvation in hardship."
On an adjacent peak, a large bell has been mounted by the believers. It tolls across the valley three times a day. On hearing it, the faithful drop to their knees to pray. The bell weighs 270kg. The followers carried it on foot for 50km in torrential rain from the village where the metal was cast, and then hauled it up to the summit. Vissarion himself is spared much of the physical toil. While teams of young men dig irrigation trenches beside his chalet, he whiles away the long days on the mountaintop painting oil canvases.
At the age of 18 Sergei Torop enlisted, starting his compulsory two-year stint in the Red Army and finishing as a sergeant on construction sites in Mongolia before working for three years as a metal worker in a factory in the Siberian town of Minusinsk. From there, the self-proclaimed saviour embarked on a career as a traffic policeman, also in Minusinsk, winning nine commendations during five years' service. Job cuts in 1989 left him unemployed just as the Soviet Union was descending into chaos. Millions of Russians were bewildered and craving answers. The advent of the new era also coincided with Sergei's rebirth as Vissarion.
Thousands of people, the majority of them educated professionals from cities in European Russia, abandoned wives, husbands and children to flock to the Church of the Last Testament, replicating the flight of the schismatics to Siberia from European Russia 350 years ago to escape persecution by the Orthodox church. The schismatics' descendants now share some of the same villages with the Vissarionites, who have assimilated many elements of Orthodox ritual but whose belief system also embraces an eclectic, some say incoherent, mish-mash of Buddhist, Taoist and green values.
For centuries, the wide-open spaces of Siberia have drawn the sectarian, the wacky and the nonconformist. The post-Soviet decade has revived that tradition, bringing a boom in evangelism and new age cults. Of 140 religious organisations registered in the republic of Khakassia, says Nikolai Volkov, the chief local government official dealing with religious affairs, 28 are "new religious movements", as new age sects are dubbed.
For the Church of the Last Testament, it is now year 42 of the new era, which the believers date from Vissarion's birth in 1961. Christmas has been abolished and replaced by a feast day on January 14, the Teacher's birthday. The biggest holiday of the year falls on August 18, the anniversary of Vissarion's first sermon in 1991, when the "saviour" descends from the mountain on horseback to join thousands of revellers cavorting in the river running by the hamlet of Petropavlovka.
To the east lies Sun City. It is here, at the foot of the mountain where their saviour lives with his wife and six children (including a little girl adopted from a single mother in the commune), that the hardcore faithful, the most committed of the Vissarionites, congregate. On a patch of taiga peat bog that they have cleared of birch and cedar, 41 families live in timber cabins and felt yurts. The men sport ponytails and beards, the women long hair and long skirts. Most of them are in their mid-30s. The giggling of children is all around. There is a school and a kindergarten. The birth rate here is much higher than in the average Russian village.
The mood is cheerfully apocalyptic. "Have you not heard?" laughs Igor as he guides us through the swamp. "A comet is going to smash into the earth next year." With his beard, birch stick, tunic and pointy Uzbek felt hat, the 48-year-old recovered alcoholic from St Petersburg looks like he has walked off the set of Lord of the Rings.
If the looming comet imperils most of humanity, Sun City is Noah's Ark. Russia's mission, in the best Orthodox tradition of "Third Rome" messianism, is to redeem the rest of us. "This central part of Siberia is the part of the world that can survive best," explains Vissarion. "And this is a society that can endure big changes and be more receptive to a better understanding of the truth."
For now, though, the apocalypse can wait. There's work to do and word to spread. In recent years Vissarion has been to New York, to Germany, the Netherlands, France, and Italy seeking converts. For the first time he has just been "invited" to Britain, where he hopes to preach "soon".
Such international jetsetting feeds suspicions that he is living at their expense of his disciples. He insists that neither he nor his church has any "regular income", that his foreign travels are "sponsored" by his hosts. His chalet, powered by solar batteries and a small windmill, is modest, if more comfortable than the homes of his followers. It is also more remote, a steep hour's climb up a path from Sun City.
"I've been with him 10 years, I know him," says Vadim, a former drummer in a Russian rock band and Vissarion's right-hand man. "He's the only person I know who lives what he preaches. They say he's a liar and a cheat, taking the money. They're only describing the way they behave themselves."
At 7am, the menfolk and a few women emerge from their cabins to stream towards the "city" centre, marked by a mud circle ringed by stones, at the centre of which stands a carved wooden angel, wings outstretched, and capped by the Vissarionites' symbol - a cross inside a circle. This is a daily ritual. The faithful kneel on short wooden planks, murmur prayers and sing hymns, led by a man with a rich baritone. Then they join hands in a circle around the stones, raise their heads to the mountain, from where they believe Vissarion is watching, and sing paeans to "our tender father".
"Immortality is the unique quality of the human soul, but mankind has to learn how to achieve it, how to live eternally," Vissarion says quietly before shrouding his head in a white shawl and shuffling away.
"There's a place in the New Testament where Jesus says the time will come when I will no longer speak in parables. That time has come: the time for people to see the aim of life.

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verses for story:

“And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, ‘I am Christ;’ and shall deceive many.” (Mat 24: 4-5)

    " For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and miracles to       deceive even the elect-if that were possible."Mathew 24:24

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May 7, 2002

 Plague of locusts hits Afghanistan

A plague of locusts of "almost biblical proportions" is threatening Afghanistan, a country wrecked by years of fighting, drought and food shortages, a senior international aid official said on Monday.
By the hundreds of millions, the locusts are marching across areas of northern Afghanistan, threatening up to 70 percent of crop production and millions of livelihoods.
"It's a problem of almost biblical proportions," said Richard China, the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization's program  manager in Afghanistan.
"We estimate that it's the worst infestation in the last 30 years," he told Reuters Television.
Locusts are endemic to the plains that lie north of the Hindu Kush mountains, the traditional breadbasket of Afghanistan.
Normally the problem is kept under control by local farmers digging narrow trenches around infested areas to trap young locusts, which cannot fly.
But this year, the problem has mushroomed to proportions not seen since the late 1970s.
"This is due to a combination of lack of control in recent years due to political instability and the difficulty of getting into the areas (because of security)," China said.
The international community's lack of interest in Afghanistan over the years has starved the fight against locusts of precious resources, he added.
To fight the army of insects marching towards the crop growing areas, the FAO and several nongovernmental organizations have deployed 1,300 hand-held sprayers and five vehicles mounted with machines to spread pesticide.
"So far, we appear to be winning the battle," China said.
With the help of the FAO, local farmers are targeting the arid areas that lie between the locusts and the farmlands.
In Baglan province north of Kabul, several thousand farmers dressed in orange boiler suits were out in the fields spraying the ground, which appeared to shimmer under a sea of locusts.
"It's incredible -- the ground looks as if it's moving, there's so many of them," said one traveller who had just returned from the region.
China estimated that crops, mainly wheat, worth $60 million on local markets, were at stake from the plague.
"This could affect the livelihoods of several million rural households," he said.

 verse of the story: "There will be great earthquakes, famines and pestilences in various places, and great signs from heaven".  Luke 21:11      

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May 10, 2002 

 Giant Glacier Falls Into Ocean Near Antarctica

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A huge ice shelf 10 times bigger than Manhattan has plummeted into the sea near Antarctica, U.S. government scientists said on Thursday, adding urgency to warnings that global temperatures are rising for the worse.
The news follows the March collapse of the so-called Larsen B ice shelf in Antarctica in the Weddell Sea near Chile -- which was the size of a small European country.
The collapse on the Ross ice shelf -- in the Ross Sea -- is about 41 nautical miles long and 4 nautical miles wide.
It was spotted by the National Ice Center in Suitland, Maryland, which analyzed infrared photos taken on May 5 by a military satellite. The collapse likely occurred over the last two weeks, a spokesman for the center said.
The Ice Center gathers data for the U.S. Department of Defense, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and U.S. Coast Guard.
The collapse is a result of so-called calving, as constant motion by polar ice caps fractures the ice into sometimes-large fragments that float loose into the sea.
Green groups pointed to the ice shelf collapses as evidence that emissions of greenhouse gases are causing global temperatures to rise and the polar ice caps to melt.
For meteorological reasons, glaciers are one of the first indicators of rising planetary temperatures, said Kalee Kreider, a global warming expert at the National Environmental Trust.
"They're a canary in the coal mine for the global warming trend," Kreider said.
Carbon emissions from power plants and factories have been linked to global warming, which scientists warn could lead to massive flooding and rising ocean levels. The United States is the world's largest emitter of so-called greenhouse gases.
                                                                                    

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 May 11, 2002

 AL QAIDA TARGETS LEBANON AS NEW BASE

The Middle East Newsline reports: “Al Qaida is believed to have designated Lebanon as its Middle East base of operations, which could turn Israel into a direct target of Osama Bin Laden.A report said an Al Qaida base in Lebanon would allow the Islamic movement to combine forces with numerous Palestinian and other groups in the insurgency war against Israel.‘This infrastructure would be invaluable for Al Qaida, allowing its operatives to infiltrate, recruit new operatives, and build new sleeper cells that would combine forces with the Islamic militant organizations already operating in the Palestinian arena,’ the report by the International Policy Institute for Counter-Terrorism said.The report, entitled ‘The Al Qaida-Hizballah Connection,’ and authored by Yoni Fighel and Yael Shahar, said an Al Qaida foothold in Lebanon would enable the movement to infiltrate Israel. The report said the routes would be either directly from Lebanon or through Jordan”.

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         July 9, 2002

    APPLIED DIGITAL DEVICE LINKS PASSENGER, LUGGAGE
    The Palm Beach Post reports: "Talk about having permanent baggage. Applied Digital Solutions Inc. -- that's right, the folks who brought you the   implantable VeriChip -- says it has devised a way for airport security to link a person to their luggage through a permanent identification device.The company says its new technology, called VeriPass and VeriTag, will help people get through security checkpoints faster at airports and provide a foolproof way to ensure that people are who they say they are."It can reduce long lines at the airport and make check-ins more accurate," said Gary Gray, vice president of wireless and software for VeriChip Corp., a subsidiary of Applied Digital.The technology calls for a traveler's luggage to have a tag containing a radio frequency identification device molded into it. When a scanner reads the tag, it signifies that it belongs to the owner who has the VeriChip implant. The implant would be voluntary, Gray said.The VeriChip, the size of a grain of rice, will also contain information on the passenger and can be linked to flight manifest logs, and airline or law-enforcement software databases.The technology will be on display at the Airport Security Expo July 17-18 in Las Vegas…"

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     May 17, 2002

FRANCE AND BRITAIN DEMAND POWERFUL EU PRESIDENT

The EU Observer reports: "France and Britain joined forces on Wednesday to demand the creation of a powerful new president of the European Council who British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, believes will become the public face and driving force of Europe. The goal is to give Europe a high-profile political leader, who would also serve as the European Union’s face in international affairs and take a key role in developing defense and foreign policies.They believe the new president would give the European Union a sharper identity, providing much-needed leadership and accountability.Spain is expected to add its support to the idea. Winning the backing of Germany, however, is still a major hurdle.The European commission, which is fighting to preserve its influence, will contest the plans vigorously, since the move would be seen as weakening the powers of the unelected Commission and its own president Romano Prodi.If approved by member states, the post would be created in 2005 or 2006. The idea of an appointed EU council president was introduced by Mr. Chirac in a speech in Strasbourg on March 7 as part of his plan to bolster the idea of a Europe of member states.Under the new proposals, the council president would be elected by all European Union leaders for a five-year term to coincide with that of the Commission president.The new system would replace the current six-month rotating European Union presidency, which has been blamed for failing to give strong leadership and political direction, which would become even more unsatisfactory with the admission of up to 10 new countries to the European Union in 2004…"   

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 Special Report: - The Big Picture Signs of the Times Witnessing Tools
7/19/2002
Jack Kinsella The Bible says that the antichrist will eventually seize single-handed control of a unified global economic system, global religious system and global government. 

(Actually, it would be more accurate to say he seized control of the global superpower. Scripture also says the world is divided up into four regional spheres of power, the Kings of the East, the King of the South, the Gog-Magog Alliance and the Revived Roman Empire.)

The Bible also tells us a bit about how the antichrist pulls off his single-handed global coup d`etat. Daniel tells us that by 'peace he will destroy many' and that he starts the clock ticking for the 2520 day Tribulation Period by inking a seven-year peace deal between Israel and the 'many'. (Dan 9:27)

The Bible says his control will be complete; that means he will also require the support of the money trust. There is a global banker's cabal -- it isn't a myth.

What began as a European banking family enterprise grew, through strategic intermarriage and unwavering dedication to the aims and principles of its founder, in both power and influence until today, it is simply known as the System. Whether it is the Federal Reserve System, or the Bank of England System or a European-style Central Banking System, they all operate under the same rules.

Christians usually divide themselves into two camps regarding the money trust. Either they deny it exists, calling it 'conspiracy theory' -- or they scream for its abolition.

There is a third point of view. It goes like this: It is a conspiracy, and not a theory. It does have nefarious goals which include seizing control of the world's wealth, right down to the house you live in and the car you drive to work. In the US, you spend the first five months of each year - to Memorial Day, roughly -- just to pay your taxes. That's called 'Tax Freedom" Day.

[In Canada, land of Socialized Medicine, Family Allowances and cradle-to-grave income security, Tax Freedom Day falls on Labor Day]. That is the 'tribute' due to the Masters of the Money Trust.

It exists, it’s the only system we have, replacing or tearing it down would plunge the world into chaos, it is a necessary part of the overall prophetic picture, so it must exist, get over it.

Still a Tall Order

The global economy is a reality, as is the money trust that controls it. The four global spheres of political influence the Bible speaks of exist, although they are still somewhat fluid.

The global religious system is slowing taking form -- the war on terror will undoubtedly help to shape some kind of kinder, more tolerant and less fundamental religious worldview. The Apostle John describes the false prophet as having "two horns like a Lamb" (symbolic of Christ) but says he "spake as a dragon" (symbolic of Satan).

Add them together and you get a kinder, gentler, more inclusive Christianity, without all that 'fundamentalist nonsense' about salvation and Jesus being the 'only way' and so forth. (The kind of religion that could maybe even have a voice at the UN?)

The global government (read western regional superpower) also remains somewhat fluid at the moment. Although America is the current superpower, Europe is not far behind, militarily, politically and economically. (The euro achieved parity with the dollar recently for the first time).

America is locked in a war with religious fanatics and that means that anything is possible. And Daniel says the path to global superstardom runs through Jerusalem.

So, if we are living in the last days, then all three of these should dovetail at Jerusalem.

Let's see.

America's War with al-Qaeda

What was it about again? Oh yeah. Islam, al-Aqsa Mosque, Jerusalem, US support for Israeli oppression, yada, yada, etc.

The Global Government

The US is currently at loggerheads with the UN over the Rome Statute that created the International Court that the US fears can be used to indict our military leaders or possibly our political leaders for war crimes.

This means America's global reach may be curtailed to limit our potential liability. We are already discussing withdrawal from a number of UN operations.

The United States is the only country that consistently votes with Israel at the UN. Without our veto, Israel would have been legislated out of existence by the UN Security Council decades ago.

The Senate voted eight years ago to move our embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. The administration has not yet done so because the UN regards Jerusalem as a disputed city.

America's consistent support for Israel has marginalized our influence at the UN and has so polarized the global body that most anti-Israel resolutions are defeated by margins like 184-2 -- with the two votes being Israel and the US veto.

Consequently, America's influence at the UN continues to decline, while Europe's political stock keeps rising, both at the UN and among the Arab bloc.

The Global Economy

Investor confidence is slipping, due to a combination of stock fraud, the war on terror with al-Qaeda and the crisis in the Middle East between Israel and her enemies.

All roads to power in the last days run through Jerusalem.

How Does He Pull It All Together?

Now that we have established the existence and the interdependence of the three predicted pillars of antichrist, how does he pull the wool over the eyes of the whole world?

"And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie. . .” Paul explains in 2 Thessalonians 2:11.

Bush's One-Side Plan

In order for the entire world to believe a lie, one must first have a vehicle in place to deliver that lie. Now we come to a subdivision of the global money trust -- the media that it wholly owns and operates according to its own philosophy.

It would take too long to prove it, but it can be proved by backtracking through the maze of interlocking directorates.

I've done it. But explaining it would take a whole book -- and there are already plenty of them on the market -- another isn't necessary.

Anyway, a short cut works equally well at dispelling doubt. Just listen to them.

We've discussed the fact that 'more Americans get their news from ABCNews than from any other source' before. The White House won't deal with Arafat because he's a terrorist. Everybody knows he's a terrorist.

Everybody except Peter Jennings

June 24 WorldNews Tonight: “We’re going to begin tonight with what the President has decided should be done to make peace between Israelis and Palestinians. In short, the President said today the Palestinians should get rid of their leader Yasser Arafat; get a new political and economic system, a new constitution, a new security service. And when the Palestinians have done that, the Bush administration will support a provisional Palestinian state. If this sounds like Mr. Bush has come down squarely on Israel’s side in the Israeli-Palestinian struggle, that is how it looks in the Middle East and in Washington.”

According to Peter Jennings, Bush didn't decide Arafat was 'tainted by terror' and refused to deal with him because we don't negotiate with terrorists. Instead, he came down 'squarely on Israel's side'.

We are living in the last days. All the signs are in place. The war on terror, the crisis in the Middle East, our widening political gap with Europe, the teetering economy; all these various elements conspire together to shape the coming global system, pounding and fluffing the way one would shape a pillow, until it takes the precise shape necessary for what lies ahead.

What lies ahead is a two-fold event. The next major prophetic event on God's calendar is, I believe, the Rapture of the Church in advance of the beginning of the Seventieth Week of Daniel.

There are other sincere, honest Christians who believe the Rapture takes place during or after the Tribulation Period. I have no quarrel with you; I simply take a different view.

In any case, there is little doubt that time of Jacob's Trouble is soon to come over the whole earth. The irrefutable evidence lies before you.

"Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled." Matthew 24:34 

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July 20, 2002

OFFICIALS ALARMED BY WEST NILE VIRUS

CNN reports: "Health officials are keeping a close eye on the incidence of West Nile virus in Louisiana after yet another 4 new cases were confirmed this week, bringing the total number to 7 this year. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta confirmed this week that a 34-year-old woman and 3 men, ages 17, 62 and 76, had the mosquito-borne virus. Last week, state health officials reported that 3 people, ages 53, 62 and 78, had the disease. Louisiana has not set any West Nile records yet, since the 1999 outbreak killed 7 people and sent 62 others to hospitals in New York -- but Louisiana's epidemiologist, Dr. Raoult Ratard, is concerned now. 'In 2001, no county in the United States had more than 3 cases,' Ratard said. 'We are getting up into fairly concentrated numbers. And of course it's early in the season. So, the news is not that good.'Mosquitoes spread West Nile from infected birds to humans, who can then develop deadly encephalitis, or swelling of the brain. Humans cannot pass the virus to each other. Symptoms are similar to the flu, including fatigue and fever. There is no cure for the virus. The CDC urges people to report dead birds to local health authorities and to protect themselves against mosquito bites by getting rid of standing water, where mosquitoes breed, and to wear insect repellent or long sleeves outdoors…"   

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July 20, 2002

Drought, abnormally dry weather hits 49 states

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Abnormally dry or drought conditions affect all or part of 49 U.S. states and could worsen over the Northeast, government scientists reported Friday.

The Weekly Drought Monitor, issued by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, predicted that a broad swath of the eastern United States -- from the Ohio Valley to Northern New England -- will see drought conditions develop in the next few months.

Among the 50 states in this week's drought map, only Wisconsin is spared from dry conditions. This week's map is based on information collected through July 16.
Roughly 36 percent of the country is covered by one of four drought categories, which range from "moderate" to "exceptional," said Jay Lawrimore, a climate scientist with the National Climatic Data Center.

A large area of "extreme" drought -- the second-worst category -- extends from northern Montana to the Mexican border, and from western Nebraska to El Paso and San Diego. A smaller area of "exceptional" drought -- the worst conditions measured -- stretches southward from southern Wyoming to near the cities of Phoenix and Albuquerque.

Lawrimore said it is unusual to see drought over such a wide area, with some of the year's driest times still ahead. And he said it was "very unusual" to see all but one state touched by either full-fledged drought or abnormally dry weather.

The drought is also blamed for one of the worst wildfire years on record. Much of the West has been declared an agricultural disaster area by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, making farmers and ranchers in the stricken areas eligible for federal assistance. Many states and communities in the drought region have limited residential use of water.

Many of those same restrictions are in effect in the Southeast, where an area of "extreme" and "exceptional" drought stretches from central Georgia to just north of Richmond, Virginia.

Leon Bowler looks out at the 390-acre Upper Enterprise Reservoir that's been reduced to a puddle outside Enterprise, Utah.
A small area of the lower Rio Grande Valley is also in "extreme" drought -- but much of the rest of Texas has made an abrupt exit from the drought zone, swapping its dry weather for another problem: torrential rains and flooding.

The bad news will get worse, NOAA predicted. The Ohio River Valley and much of Upstate New York can expect drought conditions to develop, with several dry months on the horizon.

Hard-hit areas can expect little relief.

"No matter how you look at it, water shortages can be expected through October 2002 in most areas that are now experiencing drought," said Doug LeComte, of NOAA's Climate Prediction Center. LeComte said that much of the Rocky Mountains drought area has endured its driest January-to-June in recorded history.
 

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