(Please note: some of the claims made by reporters and Mayor Nagin during and immediately after Hurricane Katrina and mentioned in this Friday Fax have since been shown to be exaggerated or wrong.)
Following devastating hurricane Katrina, which hit New Orleans and Louisiana on 29 August 2005, a small part of the USA is in a state of shock, and a huge region has been devastated. Thousands are dead, and 25,000 body bags have been delivered to the region. One million people have lost their homes, and armed gangs made New Orleans a lawless jungle. With a backdrop of rape, hate, desperation and powerlessness, old race and class conflicts have reared their head, everyone fighting against everyone else. The victims include almost no rich white people. "This could never have happened in (rich) Orange County, California, or Manhattan, New York," commented one TV reporter. "In England, racial tensions between black and white were reduced by a Christian revival. In the USA, they developed into the Civil War, and we're still fighting today," said Neil Cole, house church planter and author, at the National House Church Conference in Denver in early September 2005.
Almost as soon as the power failed in New Orleans, the thin veneer of law and order broke, and the situation exploded. Ray Nagin, Mayor of New Orleans, completely lost his composure in the face of incomprehensible delays in delivering aid ("You can get water to Baghdad, but it takes more than four days to do that here"). I can still hear him shouting on the radio "Get your asses moving and do something. Hundreds more dead every day - that makes me puke." "The multicultural metropolis New Orleans stood for lust, swing, paddleboats and Mardi Gras. Now it stands for suffering, lawlessness and death," wrote German news magazine Focus.
The majority of Americans, though, are continuing their lives as normal, as though the most devastating natural disaster in American history had never happened. In the breakfast room of my hotel in Minneapolis, everyone is just silently watching the TV screens voyeuristically presenting the suffering. Nobody says anything, everyone avoids looking at each other, "Yes, another cinnamon roll, please." Then business as usual: buying and selling, sit back and enjoy the show.
For years, scientists have been warning about a potential catastrophe in New Orleans, which is around 5 meters under sea level. The Bush administration preferred to save money rather than strengthen the levees protecting the city. In June 2005, the city's flood control budget was cut by US$71 million (44%). Now, they face unknown reparation costs, around US$100 billion in economic damage, and the cost of rebuilding (Bush: "out of this chaos is going to come a fantastic Gulf Coast").
Amos 3:6-7
"When disaster comes to a city, has not the LORD caused it? Surely the Sovereign LORD does nothing without revealing his plan to his servants the prophets."
It was not only scientists who predicted the catastrophe; a number of prophets also saw it coming. Rick Joyner mentions that in 1998, his movement received a prophecy that "New Orleans will look like an estuary." In his commentary about the catastrophe, Joyner writes "Over the next few years a great move of God will spread over that region, and many who have lost all of their possessions will gain something far better - eternal life... There is a lot of witchcraft coming from New Orleans and it wants to cause as much death as possible."
Katrina means 'pure'
On 29th August 2004, one year to the day before the catastrophe,
Chuck Pierce (Colorado Springs) prophesied:
"A new demonstration with a new blueprint will be seen. This will be known as a meeting house... The wind and water will rise in the midst of New Orleans. Many from the south will come north for refuge. Prepare. Prepare now for winds and water that will surprise you... Prepare! Shift! Saul will be no more. David will arise from this day forward. The wind from the south will begin to blow. Watch for the effects. This will purify the land and bring great change... Get ready. Don't brace yourself. Throw yourself up. Get ready for the new is coming. Every place I blow on will shake. The wind is coming on Louisiana and it will shake the entire state... The south purifying wind of My holiness will sweep across Louisiana."
Source: Wolfgang Simson
