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Hurricane Ida devastated Louisiana, leaving most without electricity

Published

3 years ago

August 31, 2021

Hurricane Ida knocked out all eight transmission lines that deliver power to New Orleans, leaving the entire city without electricity as the powerful storm pushed through on Sunday and early Monday with winds that reached 150 miles per hour. Some of the hardest-hit areas won’t see power restored for weeks. A look at what that means for the coastal city and its residents and businesses.

WHAT HAPPENED?

The hurricane blew ashore on the 16th anniversary of Katrina, the 2005 storm that breached New Orleans’ levees, devastated the city and was blamed for 1,800 deaths. The office of Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards said Ida caused “catastrophic” damage to the power grid, forcing hospitals, businesses and private residents to rely on generators or go without refrigeration or air conditioning even as temperatures soar to close to 90 degrees. Ida was one of the strongest storms to make landfall in Louisiana and retained hurricane status nearly to Mississippi.

Officials in New Orleans and surrounding areas were encouraging people who evacuated ahead of the storm to stay away in the immediate aftermath, because it remains unsafe to return amid downed power lines, flooded homes, snapped trees and other destruction.

WHAT WILL IT TAKE TO GET POWER BACK?

The power company that serves the region said it could be weeks before some hard-hit areas see power restored. The power company, New Orleans-based Entergy, says it is working to provide backup power for water and sewer services, and the city says it is using its own generators at drainage pumping stations, but it’s not clear how long those efforts can sustain.

More than 11,000 Entergy workers, supplemented by 25,000 workers from at least 32 states and the District of Columbia, were working to restore power. As officials begin to assess damage, power will restored in a way that gets service to the greatest number of customers as safely and quickly as possible, Entergy said.

But the company faces a massive challenge. As of early Monday, 216 substations, 207 transmission lines and more than 2,000 miles of transmission lines were out of service, the company said. One transmission tower that spans the Mississippi River and had withstood Hurricane Katrina was felled during Ida, Entergy said.

Road closures, flooding and high winds were affecting crews’ ability to reach some areas and could delay power restoration in those communities. Entergy said.

“Transmission lines are very fragile in New Orleans,″ said Logan Atkinson Burke, executive director of the Alliance for Affordable Energy, an advocacy group. The group said in a 2019 report that Entergy’s aging transmission and distribution lines, complicated by the coastal region’s lakes and wetlands, result in an unusual number of outages — even without extreme weather.

ECHOES OF HURRICANES PAST

Ida came ashore 16 years after Katrina and a year after Hurricane Laura wrecked southwest Louisiana, leaving Lake Charles and other communities without power for weeks. Even as Ida was bearing down on New Orleans, marks of Laura’s devastation remained evident in blue-tarped roofs, damaged homes and boarded-up businesses that still dot the region.

Laura, which then was the most powerful storm to impact Louisiana since before the Civil War, struck the southwestern parishes on Aug. 27, 2020, as a fierce Category 4 storm. Less than two months later, Hurricane Delta swept into the same area as a Category 2. Historic flooding followed in May.

“These are lessons we have to learn over and over again,″ said Shelley Welton, an associate professor at the University of South Carolina School of Law who studies climate change and energy law. Whether it’s a deadly freeze in Texas, a wildfire in California or a hurricane in Louisiana, “the connective thread is we need to build infrastructure to better withstand stronger storms that we know are coming″ as a consequence of climate change, she said.

‘CASCADING FAILURES’

Just as the deep-freeze in Texas caused extensive suffering and death from cold, Ida will likely cause extreme suffering from excessive heat, Welton and others said. The storm also was affecting water and sewer service, cell-phone service and even 911 service in what Welton called “cascading failures.″

In New Orleans, water and sewer officials said they lost all Entergy power, but teams were working quickly to make up for this with self-generated power sources, as well as backup generators located at drainage pumping stations.

Still, problems were being reported. The New Orleans suburb of Jefferson Parish was estimating it could take at least five days to restore the water system there.

With widespread cell service outages, many people were frantically trying to reach friends and relatives and were unsuccessful. Just because you can’t get reach a loved one by phone, “that does not necessarily mean that they are not OK,” said Christina Stephens, a spokeswoman for Edwards. “We know that much of this is a communications problem.”

AT&T said Monday its wireless network in Louisiana was operating at 85% of normal, describing “significant outages” in New Orleans and Baton Rouge from power supply disruptions, flooding and storm damages. A mobile tower was sent to the governor’s emergency preparedness office to help get their phones up and running again.

WILL CONGRESS STEP IN?

Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy said the catastrophe is the latest example of why his state – and the nation – need a nearly trillion-dollar infrastructure bill that was already passed by the Senate earlier this month. “New Orleans is now a case in point” of the need to harden the nation’s infrastructure and improve resiliency, the Republican told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Monday.

“If we’re going to make our country more resilient to natural disasters, whatever they are, we have to start preparing now,″ Cassidy said. “We can’t look in the rearview mirror and say, ‘Well I wish we were prepared.’ We’ve got to start now for next year’s hurricane, next year’s wildfire, next year’s tornado. That infrastructure package is part of that.″

The bill provides about $50 billion to protect against droughts and floods and weatherize utilities and other infrastructure. It also includes about $60 billion to upgrade the electric grid and build thousands of miles of transmission lines to expand use of renewable energy.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has said the House will vote on the bipartisan measure next month.

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First death reported in Louisiana as Hurricane Ida continues wreaking havoc across southern US

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തങ്ങള്‍ വിശ്വസിക്കുന്നത് ദൈവകൃപയില്‍, അവിടുത്തെ ഹിതം നിറവേറ്റുവാന്‍ ആഗ്രഹിക്കുന്നു : യു‌എസ് വൈസ് പ്രസിഡന്‍റ് വാന്‍സ്

Published

8 hours ago

February 23, 2025

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ന്യൂയോര്‍ക്ക്: ദൈവത്തിന്റെ കൃപയിലാണ് തങ്ങൾ വിശ്വസിക്കുന്നതെന്ന സാക്ഷ്യവുമായി അമേരിക്കന്‍ വൈസ് പ്രസിഡന്‍റ് ജെ‌ഡി വാന്‍സ്. ഫെബ്രുവരി 20-ന് മേരിലാൻഡിലെ നാഷണൽ ഹാർബറിൽ നടന്ന 2025 കൺസർവേറ്റീവ് പൊളിറ്റിക്കൽ ആക്ഷൻ കോൺഫറൻസിൻ്റെ (CPAC) പ്രധാന വേദിയിലെ അഭിമുഖത്തിനിടെയാണ് അദ്ദേഹം ഇക്കാര്യം പറഞ്ഞത്. ദൈവത്തിൻ്റെ കൃപയിൽ തങ്ങള്‍ വിശ്വസിക്കുന്നുവെന്നും അവിടുത്തെ ഇഷ്ടം നിറവേറ്റുവാന്‍ തങ്ങൾ പരമാവധി ശ്രമിക്കുന്നുണ്ടെന്നും വാൻസ് പറഞ്ഞു.

ധാർമ്മിക തത്വങ്ങളുടെ ഒരു കൂട്ടം മാത്രമല്ല ക്രൈസ്തവ വിശ്വാസത്തിൻ്റെ അടിസ്ഥാനം, മറിച്ച് വിശ്വാസമാണ്. ദൈവപുത്രൻ മനുഷ്യനായിത്തീർന്നു, അവൻ മരിച്ചവരിൽ നിന്ന് ഉയിർത്തെഴുന്നേറ്റു എന്നതാണ് ക്രൈസ്തവ വിശ്വാസത്തിൻ്റെ അടിസ്ഥാനം. ഇതില്‍ നിന്ന്‍ മനസിലാക്കേണ്ട പാഠങ്ങളില്‍ ഒന്ന്, മരണത്തെ ഭയപ്പെടേണ്ടതില്ല എന്നതാണ്. ഒരാളുടെ ജീവൻ നഷ്‌ടപ്പെടുക എന്ന്‍ പറയുമ്പോള്‍ പ്രധാനമായി ഒരാളുടെ ആത്മാവ് നഷ്‌ടമാകുമെന്ന് ഞാൻ കരുതുന്നു.

ഗർഭധാരണ കേന്ദ്രങ്ങളെ പിന്തുണച്ചും, കുടുംബങ്ങളെ വളർത്തിയെടുക്കാൻ ആളുകൾക്ക് താങ്ങാനാകുന്ന ചെലവുകൾ കുറയ്ക്കുന്നതിനുള്ള നയങ്ങൾ നടപ്പാക്കിയും, ഭ്രൂണഹത്യയെക്കുറിച്ചുള്ള ധാരണകൾ മാറ്റിയും, ജീവന്‍ തിരഞ്ഞെടുക്കാൻ ആളുകളെ പ്രോത്സാഹിപ്പിച്ചും ജീവന്റെ സംസ്കാരം മുന്നോട്ട് കൊണ്ടുപോകാമെന്നും വാൻസ് അഭിമുഖത്തില്‍ പറഞ്ഞു. പ്രസിഡൻ്റ് ഡൊണാൾഡ് ട്രംപിനെ “അമേരിക്കൻ ചരിത്രത്തിലെ ഏറ്റവും പ്രോ-ലൈഫ് പ്രസിഡൻ്റ്” എന്ന് വാൻസ് വിശേഷിപ്പിച്ചു. അടിയുറച്ച കത്തോലിക്ക വിശ്വാസിയായ വാന്‍സ് ഭ്രൂണഹത്യയെ അതിശക്തമായി എതിര്‍ക്കുന്ന നേതാവ് കൂടിയാണ്.
കടപ്പാട് :പ്രവാചക ശബ്ദം

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U.S. Vice President JD Vance advocated for government policies and cultural values that encourage Americans to “choose life” and “start families” during an interview on the main stage of the 2025 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on Feb. 20 in National Harbor, Maryland.

“[People need to] stop thinking about babies as inconveniences to be discarded,” Vance said in a Thursday morning interview with Mercedes Schlapp, a senior fellow at the American Conservative Union Foundation and the wife of ACU chairman and CPAC organizer Matt Schlapp.

“We’ve got to start thinking of them as blessings to cherish,” Vance said.

During the interview, Vance noted that the United States Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade completely changed the abortion debate in the country by allowing the “will of the people to speak on the life issue” and removing it from “unelected bureaucrats” and “unelected judges.”

Vance suggested advancing a culture of life by supporting pro-life pregnancy centers, enacting policies to bring costs down so people can afford to raise families, changing perceptions about abortion, and encouraging people to choose life.

“Maybe they’ll start thinking of babies as the blessings that we all know that they are,” Vance said.

Vance referred to President Donald Trump as the “most pro-life president in American history” for nominating three of the justices who joined the majority opinion to overturn Roe v. Wade. However, he did not address the concerns pro-life advocates have raised with Trump’s recent executive order to expand and reduce the costs of in vitro fertilization , a fertility treatment in which human embryos are routinely destroyed.

Discussing his faith, the vice president, who is a convert to Catholicism, described himself as “very pro-life” and “a devout Christian.”

I just marvel at how real, and exceedingly impressive this guy @JDVance is. We are so blessed to have him as our VP.

“We put our faith in God above, we put our faith in the grace of God, and we try our best to do his will,” Vance said.

Vance discusses immigration, the economy, and energy

During the interview, Vance said the 2024 election gave Trump a “historic mandate on a few issues,” specifically on his efforts to deport immigrants who entered the country illegally, his plans to expand domestic energy and improve the economy, and his actions to reduce waste, fraud, and abuse within the government.

“The American people gave us a window to save the country and that’s exactly what we’re going to do,” the vice president said.

Vance spoke about Trump’s deportation efforts, his restrictions on border crossings, and his decision to designate drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations. He said his message to drug traffickers is for them to “get the hell out of our country.”

“Your free ride is over because President Trump is back in the Oval Office,” Vance added.

The vice president said Trump intends to “unleash American energy” with policies such as more drilling for oil on American land. This, he said, will “do more than anything” to help the economy because high costs of fuel increase costs for other things.

He also said Trump will ensure “other countries stop taking advantage of us,” extend his tax cuts, and end taxes on tips. He praised the work of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to stop “wasting [taxpayer money] on garbage.”

“We want your children and grandchildren to be able to raise a family in security and comfort in the country we all love,” Vance said.

Schlapp’s interview with the vice president kicked off CPAC’s three-day conference. Other figures scheduled to speak at the annual event include Trump, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Republican lawmakers and administration officials, foreign leaders, and various conservative media personalities.
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Bible Lessons for School Kids Are Shining Hope in Challenged Cities

Published

8 hours ago

February 23, 2025

theendtimenews

Johnstown, Pennsylvania, a city once thriving as a booming steel town, now faces significant economic challenges, including one of the nation’s highest poverty rates. Yet, in the midst of hardship, faith-based programs are stepping in to inspire the next generation, offering truth, purpose, and hope for the future.

The view here in Johnstown is excellent—it’s a city with a rich past, but it has fallen on some difficult times. That includes a series of devastating floods, beginning with the infamous 1889 disaster. Then the economy took a serious downturn after Bethlehem Steel pulled out, and now, in its wake, there’s a lingering sense of hopelessness.

But even a city in a dark valley can shine a light. Programs like Bible2School are bringing faith to the next generation, teaching children about Jesus and instilling a sense of purpose.

“People kind of expect bad things,” says Pastor Doug Black of Liberty Grace Church. “They’ve grown up in this generational expectation that nothing good’s going to happen in Johnstown. So, it’s hard to give them hope because it’s not what they’ve experienced.”

Local pastors are meeting weekly for prayer, seeking spiritual renewal for their city. This week, they gather on a rooftop, standing in the gap for Johnstown. “God, the gospel is good news, Lord,” prays Pastor Terry Knipple. “The city of Johnstown is struggling, and they need good news.”

Their prayers may be finding an answer in the next generation. While student engagement can be a challenge for public schools, children in Johnstown are eagerly skipping lunch and recess to learn about the Bible through Bible2School.

“And who or what is the rock? That firm foundation? What does that rock represent?” asks a teacher in one of the classes.

“Jesus! The Bible!” the students respond enthusiastically.

“So many of the kids have never been told that Jesus loves them,” says Stacy Novak, Executive Director of Bible2School Laurel Highlands. “We have conversations with them, ‘Do you know that you are valued, and do you know you are loved?’ It’s like they’re hearing this for the very first time.”

Bible2School, a nonprofit organization, offers off-campus Bible classes to students in grades two through four in an area where less than 20% of residents regularly attend church. The program has seen remarkable growth, expanding from 82 registered students in 2018 to 850 today—an increase of 900 percent.

“We know a handful of families who’ve started going to church as a result of their children participating,” Novak says. “So, it doesn’t just reach the children. It reaches their siblings, their parents, grandparents.”

For students like Anhori, the program is life-changing. “It’s helping me learn more about Jesus and God and how I can grow closer to Him,” she says, telling CBN News her family is thinking about finding a church.

Katie Green, Johnstown Site Director for Bible2School, knows the struggles of the community firsthand. Growing up in a single-parent household, she relates to the challenges many of these children face. “I have always felt very strongly that within our program, we have little Davids and little Esthers—that God is rising up for a time like this,” Green says.

Yet, for many of these children, the challenges continue after school. Unstable housing, hunger, and loneliness are realities for many families. That’s where New Day, another faith-based program, steps in.

“I can tell you the kids are their spiritual leaders in their households,” says Chris Plaza, leader and facilitator of New Day’s afterschool children’s programming. “We have a lot of parents who can’t read or write—so it’s almost like their children are their educators.”

New Day provides a safe space for children after school, offering a warm meal, the gospel message, and time together. Without it, many kids would end up on the streets.

“I’m excited about Johnstown,” says Pastor Ray of Journey Church. “For years, everybody was down on it because of the drugs, the lack of jobs, things like that. And it was all just gloom and doom. I thought, why not Johnstown? Why can’t we be the epicenter of revival for our country and for our state?”

In a city scarred by economic setbacks and natural disasters, Bible2School and New Day stand out as beacons of hope. With each prayer and each family touched, a new layer is added to this young generation’s foundation of faith.

“We believe this rooftop is our watchtower,” says Josh Knipple of New Day. “Seeing what God sees in the city, seeing what’s to come… Instead of seeing poverty, we see hope.”

As the children pray, “For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory… forever and ever—amen,” it’s clear that in Johnstown, faith is lighting the way to a brighter future.
Sources:CBN News

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Nearly 2,000 Students Choose Christ in 1 Night at Ohio State: ‘God Is Moving in This Generation’

Published

1 day ago

February 22, 2025

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Thousands of college students gathered at Ohio State University on Tuesday night to seek the hope that’s found in the gospel of Jesus Christ, and nearly 2,000 of them made decisions to give their hearts to God.

It was the second massive revival event of 2025 organized by the Unite US movement, and this time students braved sub-freezing temperatures down in the teens to get baptized in the backs of U-Haul trucks.

“We’ve been in awe of how God has already been moving on this campus over the past year, and He met us here again tonight,” Unite US said in a social media post. “Over 6,500 students gathered in The Schott to lift the name of Jesus and almost 2,000 responded to the altar call – experiencing the freedom only He can bring.”

“God is moving in this generation, and we know that He’s just getting started!” the post exclaimed.

Tonya Prewett, the founder and visionary behind Unite US, also posted to Instagram saying, “What a night at The Ohio State University! …close to 2,000 students made a decision to go all in with Jesus! I am in awe of how God is moving on college campuses!”

The Ohio State revival follows a Unite US outreach held last week at the University of Kentucky where more than 2,000 students gave their lives to Jesus Christ and many were baptized as well.

The next Unite US outreach will be held at Purdue University in Indiana on March 5. Since September of 2023, the ministry’s events have reached more than 70,000 college students across multiple campuses.
Sources:CBN News

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