Read The Gentile Witness Book II, Elijah Online
Authors: Samuel David
“About what Meyer” I asked.
“Waldger!”
Then he bolted out the door.
Well he has had a change of heart I guess. I wonder what he knows about Waldger that is so important.
Chapter 91
4:00 AM Monday, John Roddenburg’s temporary home in Kansas City
I was dreaming and I thought this bell kept going off then it stopped. Then it went off again. This time I opened my eyes exiting my dream. I then realized it was my telephone. I reached over to the nightstand and picked up the receiver as I was trying to clear my head.
As I put it to my ear, I head Dons voice.
“John sorry so early, but Hurricane Alex is about to make landfall and the outer bands are raising havoc in the area. I already got hold of Chester. He is on his way to the studio.”
I was still somewhat, asleep as I said, “Ok Don let me get a shower and dressed give me half an hour then send the car.”
“It is on its way?”
Chapter 92
4:45 AM Monday
Bear News Special Morning Broadcast from Kansas City Missouri
I arrived at the studio and it was chaos. As soon as he saw me Don said, “We have less than fifteen minutes to start coverage of Hurricane Alex. In addition, John why you were sleeping Elijah went back to the Temple. You can watch the footage from the Local TV station in Jerusalem and decide how to cover this.”
“Let’s see oh yes, the airlines are shut down and international travel has stopped. Our affiliates around the world are on hand to start early reporting.” He then stopped.
“There’s more isn’t there Don.” I asked knowing it was Monday and as Enoch had said Saturday all hell would break loose today.
“Yes. Aljazeera has released footage of a band of locust in a black cloud that started in Northern Iran this morning. They say its fifty-sixty miles long and is consuming everything in its path. They also said that the locusts are not crossing the border. It is contained in Iran only.”
“So, Elijah’s prophecy came to pass. Is this what you are saying?”
“Yes that is correct.”
“Do we have any one in Houston?”
“Yes. The military capitulated and allowed two camera operators and one reporter for us and the Network along with a pool of reporters for other news outlets. They are all in a compound near downtown Houston. Therefore, we can go live there. However it is still dark and sunrise is at 6:08 AM Houston time.”
Chester then came over and said, “The National Hurricane Center has confirmed landfall in about ten minutes. It’s a category four all right with sustained winds of one hundred and forty eight miles per hour.”
I thought about what Chester just said. I then thought it out as to how to sequence all this news. I felt the hurricane was a priority so I said, “We will start with the announcement that Alex is coming on shore. We will then cut to you Chester and you can go over the latest satellite and National Hurricane Center data. We then will cut to uh…who is there Don?” I asked.
“Betty Schmitt.’”
“Thanks Don I am still waking up. Ok everyone we have a plan. Oh, one more thing, do we have footage of the Caribbean destruction from Alex and now Bosner?”
Don answered, “Yes.”
“Good, we can put that in to.”
I hesitated and had another thought
. I said to Don, “The funeral of the pope and the Conclave convening. Is the Airline shutdown going to affect the American Cardinals from being able to travel to Rome or do we know yet?”
“No we don’t know” Don said, “Good point. I will have someone check on it and get back to you.”
“Also one other item I just thought of on this same subject. The Jews, who wanted to return to Israel from America, will this forced government Airline shutdown of International flights, prevent them from migrating. Is this the Governments intent?
Don thought about this for a moment then said, “Yes I am sure that is true, they don’t want them to migrate. Maybe we can get the Rabbi back on the show that said his entire congregation was going. See if they have alternative plans now.”
“Good Idea Don.” I said as I turned away shaking my head. I knew it was going to be a very long day. I headed to makeup. Only five minutes to go until show time. Two-hours early, today.
Chapter 93
2:30 PM Monday
Tehran, Iran Supreme Leader’s Palace
Minister Hafez Sohrab Ministry of Agricultural Jihad, Mauvad Shasahvar President, Ayatollah Shahin Moneim, were in the conference room and looking at the images of the swarm of locusts coming from the Aljazeera cable network.
Hafez had been, summoned immediately to the offices and like others in Iranian government; a summons to the Presidents offices was not a good thing when not planned.
The President asked me “If I remember in history Palestine in 1915 had an infestation similar to this. Do you know about the situation then I am speaking of Hafez?”
“Yes I do. We studied it in college when I was at the American University. It was in an agriculture disaster studies class I took.”
“Do you remember the result of what they did to combat this plague?
“Yes I do. At first, many people believed that prayer and petition were required to end the plague. They viewed the plague of Locust as punishment from God.”
“And what did they do then?”
“The religious leaders at the time declared a time of prayer for a full day or ‘Taanit Tzibbur’ as it was called.”
“What was the result of their prayers?”
“Initially it seemed to of worked. The locust left but afterwards they had to collect the eggs and destroy them.”
“What else did they do?”
“They used smokers and insecticides to try control the infestation. However, in spite of the prayers, egg collecting and spraying the locust came back. It was several months of fighting the Locust plague. Eventually they were eradicated but unfortunately many died due to diseases carried buy the locust.”
“Hafez” Ayatollah Shahin Moneim asked, “Can we stop them?”
“We can use airplanes or what we call crop dusters in the affected areas to spray insecticides. This will kill some but most likely not all.”
“But it will at least put a dent in it correct?”
“Yes it will help.”
Ayatollah Shahin Moneim thought a moment and said to the President. “I want you to start spraying everywhere. I will then go on the airwaves and declare a day of prayer in the streets to Allah to stop this plague.”
President Shasahvar then said, “The news media is referring to Elijah as the cause. Do we want to address this?”
Shahin thought about this for a moment and no one spoke for all knew what each was thinking for Elijah was a notable man of Allah in the Qur’an.
After a few moments, Shahin said. “I think we need to send an emissary to Elijah and see if we can reason with him. But then it may well be too late.”
“Do we have anyone who could go talk to him in Israel?” The Ayatollah asked.
“Maybe through the Palestinians we have some contacts that can travel freely in Israel.”
“Ok I will agree to this.”
He turned to Hafez and said, “Use whatever you can to battle these pests.” He then turned to Shasahvar and said, “I will declare a day of prayer please make the arrangements immediately for a press conference.”
Chapter 94
5:00 AM Monday
Bear News Special Morning Broadcast from Kansas City Missouri
The camera cut to me at the anchor desk and I started by stating, “Hurricane Alex at 5:00 AM Central Standard Time came ashore in Houston Texas packing sustained winds of a hundred and forty eight miles per hour. I might remind our viewers this is the exact prediction by Enoch in our New York Studios last week.”
I hesitated for I was not used to making those kinds of statements. I usually just reported the news. However, I composed myself and said. “We have our Meteorologist Chester Nichols with us here who will bring us up to date on the storm. Chester.”
“Thank you John.” Chester was standing by the monitor displaying an animated satellite picture of Hurricane Alex as he said. “As you can see from the satellite picture we just received from the national Hurricane Center, Alex stretches from South Padre Island south to past Lake Charles in Louisiana and covers the entire Gulf. Moreover, if you look to what is in the east more towards the Caribbean you can see Bosner right behind it. Currently as John stated earlier the winds are steady at one-hundred-and-forty-eight miles per hour. The rain is falling at the rate of four inches an hour. Storm surge according to The National Hurricane Service is, expected to exceed forty-five feet. This will now be a new record for a storm surge topping Bay St. Louis which was forty-three feet in 2005.”
John then asked Chester “With this being a category four which we know is a major hurricane what type of damage are we looking at?”
“According to the ‘Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale a category four will cause severe damage to buildings with the loss of most of the roof structure and some exterior walls. Many trees will be, snapped, uprooted and power poles downed. Fallen trees and power poles will isolate residential areas. In addition, power outages will last weeks to possibly months. Most of the area will be uninhabitable for an extended period. This also does not take into account the storm surge or the flooding that is likely to occur.”
“Chester, are the winds and rain moving south or north of Houston.”
“This is the problem with this hurricane Brad for normally I would easily give you an answer. However, right now the outer bands though not producing one hundred and forth eight miles per hour winds are still clocking at about a hundred and ten in Corpus Christi, which is about two hundred and nine miles away from the center. This means this hurricane is causing severe damage to land for about four hundred miles along the Texas Coast.”
“That sounds bad Chester very bad. Let see what our on the spot reporters have to say. We are going live to Houston where our correspondent Betty Schmitt is.”
John turned towards the monitor behind him and said “Betty.”
“Yes John this is Betty Schmitt. We are reporting from a military run observation station located near downtown Houston. Please note we have no landline or cell phone access. We are using sat phones to speak and stream video.”
“We and the viewer’s understand Betty and we will make do. We know it is not yet daylight but can you describe what is happening right now.”
“Well John it sounds like a train in the atmosphere outside. The trees in our area we can see are bending in half and the rain is so fierce you cannot see three feet.”
“It does sound dangerous there where you are.”
“Another question Betty, I am sure many will want to know was Houston totally evacuated as was stipulated by the Government.”
“No I don’t think so, the order came too late. Prior to the rain and winds starting about 2:00 AM here there were some military trucks going door to door in some suburbs. We do know as of 3:00 AM all the highways leading out of Houston were still packed this included I-10, I-49,290, I-37, and 77 from the Rio Grande Valley south.”
“Do we have any idea how these motorist are faring?”
“No John, not at this time.”
“Okay Betty it appears it is going to be a long morning. We will check back with you a bit later when its daylight and see if we can pinpoint better answers to some of our questions.”
“Thank you John, This is Betty Schmitt live from Houston Texas.”