Libya Flood Death Toll Rises

An estimated 5,300 people in northeast Libya are feared dead, with thousands more missing amid devastating floods from Mediterranean storm Daniel’s historic rainfall Sunday. The rare, tropical storm-like phenomenon—the same storm responsible for last week’s floods in southeastern Europe—lost strength yesterday as it tracked east into Egypt. The country’s northeastern port city of Derna, roughly 150 miles east of Benghazi, was hit hardest, with over 16 inches of rain falling in 24 hours (its September average is 1 inch). Roughly a quarter of the city of 90,000, bisected by the Wadi Derna river (see map), was completely washed away after two upriver dams failed, sending walls of water down the valley and across the city’s delta to the Mediterranean Sea. See photos here. Rescue efforts have been delayed as a result of flooded or destroyed infrastructure, a network of aging bridges and roads experts claim have not been maintained amid the country’s decade-long division into rival east and west governments.

Death toll from the earthquake in Türkey and Syria passes 45,000

More than 45,000 people have been killed in the earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria, and the toll is expected to soar, with some 264,000 apartments in Turkey destroyed and many still missing in the country’s worst modern disaster.

The death toll in Turkey stands at 39,672 while neighbouring Syria has reported more than 5,800 deaths. Syria’s toll has not changed for days.

Mosques around the world on Friday performed absentee funeral prayers for the dead in Turkey and Syria, many of whom could not receive full burial rites given the enormity of the disaster.

What did Jesus say will be the signs prior to His second coming?

“There will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and pestilences. And there will be terrors and great signs from heaven.” Luke 21:11