MidnightWatcher – Prophecy in Motion

“The United Nations is poised to declare a famine in parts of Somalia as a humanitarian emergency persists in drought-affected communities across the Horn of Africa.

More than 10.7 million people are in need of assistance as the Horn of Africa experiences its driest period in 60 years, says the United Nations Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Several humanitarian groups have estimated the number at risk is already over 11 million, as people struggle to cope with persistent drought, high food prices and conflict.

The UN has not yet declared the current food crisis a famine, but Brian Stewart, a distinguished senior fellow at the Munk School for Global Affairs at the University of Toronto, told CBC News that the UN is expected to declare a famine in some areas of Somalia within 48 hours.

In parts of the Horn of Africa, food insecurity has already reached emergency levels — one level below famine. ‘Famine/catastrophe’ is the worst-case scenario on a five-level scale used to gauge food security.

The scale uses several indicators to declare a famine, including acute malnutrition in more than 30 per cent of children, at least two deaths per 10,000 people every day and access to less than four litres of water a day. Large-scale displacement of people, civil strife and pandemic illness are also taken into consideration.” Read more.

“ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Sixteen New Mexico counties have been designated as natural disaster areas due to drought.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced the designation Wednesday. It covers counties that stretch from the northeast down to the central portion of the state.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack says the designation will provide help to hundreds of New Mexico farmers and ranchers who have suffered significant losses to small grains, pasture and forage crops.

The agency says farmers in several other counties also qualify for natural disaster assistance because their counties are contiguous.

U.S. Sen. Tom Udall says this summer has been a real struggle for New Mexico. He pointed to extreme drought, record temperatures and fires that have destroyed land and crops.” Source.

New Mexico drought forces extreme measures – “Along the Pecos River in eastern New Mexico, the Interstate Stream Commission is being forced for the first time to pump groundwater to augment the river’s flow to meet a settlement with farmers in the Carlsbad Irrigation District. On the lower Rio Grande, farmers have been negotiating with irrigation officials in New Mexico and Texas in hopes of getting additional water to extend what has been the shortest irrigation season on record. In northern New Mexico, the city of Las Vegas has only enough water for the next 57 days.” Read more.

By KIM SEVERSON and KIRK JOHNSON – “COLQUITT, Ga. — The heat and the drought are so bad in this southwest corner of Georgia that hogs can barely eat. Corn, a lucrative crop with a notorious thirst, is burning up in fields. Cotton plants are too weak to punch through soil so dry it might as well be pavement.

Farmers with the money and equipment to irrigate are running wells dry in the unseasonably early and particularly brutal national drought that some say could rival the Dust Bowl days.

‘It’s horrible so far,’ said Mike Newberry, a Georgia farmer who is trying grow cotton, corn and peanuts on a thousand acres. ‘There is no description for what we’ve been through since we started planting corn in March.’

The pain has spread across 14 states, from Florida, where severe water restrictions are in place, to Arizona, where ranchers could be forced to sell off entire herds of cattle because they simply can’t feed them.

In Texas, where the drought is the worst, virtually no part of the state has been untouched. City dwellers and ranchers have been tormented by excessive heat and high winds. As they have been in the southwest, wildfires are chewing through millions of acres.” Read more.

“GENEVA — Famine has broken out in the Horn of Africa with some ten million people affected by a severe drought, the United Nations said Tuesday.

A UN spokeswoman said the drought in some regions was the worst in 60 years.

‘Over ten million people are affected by the drought in one way or other,’ Elisabeth Byrs, spokeswoman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, told the AFP news agency.

‘We believe that the drought situation in certain regions is the worst in 60 years. In several regions, we can speak of famine,’ she added.

Byrs told reporters in Geneva that some 3.2 million people each in Kenya and Ethiopia, 2.6 million in Somalia and 117,000 in Djibouti needed aid.

Child malnutrition rates have reached emergency levels of 15 percent in some areas, she added.” Read more.

By Don Teague – “(CBS News) CRAWFORD, Texas – It looks like harvest time in Texas, but for fourth-generation farmer Bert Gohlke it’s actually a financial disaster.

‘It hurts, it hurts bad, it hurts real bad,’ Gohlke tells CBS News correspondent Don Teague.

This could have been a great year for Gohlke – corn prices are near record highs. But instead of harvesting his 1,500 acres of corn, Gohlke is chopping it up into a feed called silage – the only salvageable use for a crop destroyed by drought.

‘We should be dealing with 7-and-a-half foot corn right now,’ Gohlke says. But that’s not the case.

His potential losses? More than a quarter of a million dollars – but that’s just a fraction of the $3 billion the historic drought will cost Texas farmers and ranchers.

Two hundred and fifty miles south, Rosalee Coleman is hurting too. A 70-year-old widow, she’s running a cattle ranch on more than a thousand acres by herself.

‘Other than raising three wonderful children, I feel like my greatest achievement has been to hold on to this land,’ Coleman says.

She needs every acre. With no real rain in nine months, she’s been forced to move her cattle from pasture to pasture – just to find grass to sustain them.” Read more.

By Alicia Myers – “Spring storms are wreaking havoc on farmers’ fields in Sedgwick county. Wheat fields received the majority of damage during a recent hail storm.

For farmers, the damage has hurt their crops, and their pocketbooks.

Mick Rausch is no stranger to Spring storms, especially those that strike right in the middle of wheat harvest.

‘I can remember doing wheat harvest when I was 8, 9, 10 years old,’ said Rausch.

Since a young age, Rausch has always hoped for a good crop.

‘Farmers are eternal optimists,’ said Rausch.

Until the June 9th hail storm hit, Rausch had been fairly lucky.

‘You’ve got a whole years worth of income potential out there. The thought of losing a whole year’s work in a 5 minute storm, it can lead to some sleepless nights,’ said Rausch.

This storm, however, lasted for just under an hour.” Read more.