Blog note. Jesus indicated that ‘fearful sights’ (various natural disasters) would occur leading up to the time known as the Tribulation and Great Tribulation (a combined seven year period of great destruction on earth). Although these types of things have occurred in the past for centuries and thousands of years, they could be identified as the ‘season of the times’ due to the ferociousness of these events. They would be occurring in greater intensity, severity, frequency, size, duration, scope … just like the pains that a woman experiences in labor the farther along she is in the labor process. We are in the ‘season of the times’ that comes just before the seven (7) year Tribulation/Great Tribulation period
… And great earthquakes shall be in diverse places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven. (Luke 21:11).
… And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; (Luke 21:25)
… Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken; (Luke 21:26)
… This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. (2 Timothy 3:1)
Jesus is giving a series of prophecies about what to look for as the age of grace comes to a close. These verses are several of many such prophecies from throughout the Bible. 2017 was the worst year in recorded history for the intensity, frequency, severity, duration and occurrence of a large number of severe natural disasters worldwide. Earthquakes, volcanoes, hurricanes, typhoons, cyclones, torrential flooding, unprecedented wildfires in unusual places, devastating droughts, excessive/scorching heat setting records everywhere, record snowfalls in Europe and Russia. Snow in the Arabia. This list can go on. Most studied Eschatologists believe these ‘fearful sights’ and massive natural disasters are all part of the ‘CONVERGENCE’ of signs that this Biblical and prophetic age is closing. Most people who study prophecy are familiar with the routine reference(s) made that these things will be like a woman having labor pains, growing in intensity, frequency, size and duration.

Increasing rat populations extend beyond New York — Philadelphia, Chicago and Los Angeles are also confronting issues.

New York Times. May 23, 2019

So many rats regularly lurk on a sidewalk in Brooklyn that it is the humans who avoid the rats, not the other way around. Not even cars are safe: Rats have chewed clean through engine wires.

A Manhattan avenue lined with trendy restaurants has become a destination for foodies — and rats who help themselves to their leftovers. Tenants at a public housing complex in the South Bronx worry about tripping over rats that routinely run over their feet.

New York has always been forced to coexist with the four-legged vermin, but the infestation has expanded exponentially in recent years, spreading to just about every corner of the city.

“I’m a former Marine so I’m not going to be squeamish, but this is bad,” said Pablo Herrera, a 58-year-old mechanic who has counted up to 30 rats while walking on his block in Prospect Heights, just around the corner from the stately Brooklyn Museum.

One key reason rats seem to be everywhere? Gentrification. The city’s construction boom is digging up burrows, forcing more rats out into the open, scientists and pest control experts say.

But the onslaught of rats extends beyond New York: Cities such as Philadelphia, Chicago and Los Angeles are also confronting outbreaks.

“Everywhere I go, rat populations are up,” said Robert Corrigan, a research scientist in New York who estimates that their numbers may have increased by as much as 15 to 25 percent in some cities.

The rodents are not only a nuisance and a blight on the quality of life, but also a health risk. A bacterial infection spread by rat urine, leptospirosis, killed a Bronx resident in 2017.

Chicago — crowned the nation’s rat capital in one study — has more than doubled its work crews dedicated to rats, who set out poison and fill in burrows in parks, alleys and backyards. It also passed ordinances requiring developers and contractors to have a rat-control plan before demolishing buildings or breaking ground on new projects.

Washington, where rat complaints have nearly tripled to roughly 6,000 last year from 2,400 in 2014, is testing a rat-sterilization program tried elsewhere that uses liquid contraceptives as bait.

And Seattle is planning to train neighborhood property owners and managers on how to stem infestations. “We respond where we can, but management of rats, not elimination of them, is our practical goal,” said Hilary Karasz, a county health official.

In New York, rats once scurried in the shadows but now they frolic brazenly in broad daylight. One even became a social media star: pizza rat. Parents at an Upper West Side playground said rats jumped into the sandbox where their children played, though the vermin have been cleared for now.

Mr. de Blasio, calling for “more rat corpses,” unveiled a $32 million assault on rats in 2017, which included increased litter basket pickups, the deployment of solar-powered, trash compacting bins and rat-resistant steel cans. The city has also used dry ice to smother rats where they live.

But after dropping last year, rat sightings are again on the upswing. The top spot for rat sighting complaints has been the Upper West Side, where residents are known for speaking up, followed by four Brooklyn neighborhoods: Prospect Heights, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Bushwick and Ocean Hill. (Find your neighborhood here.)

Daniel Barber, the chairman of a citywide council of tenant associations in public housing developments, believes the rat problem has gotten better, though, he added, “I’m not going to say it’s a drastic improvement.”

Many community leaders say the city needs to dedicate a lot more money to rooting out the rat problem and expanding trash cleanups and pickups across the city. “It’s a Band-Aid,” said Aaron Biller, the president of Neighborhood in the Nineties, a civic group on the Upper West Side. “It’s like if someone said, ‘we need to clean the floor of a gymnasium’ and handed you a toothbrush.”

City health inspections found 30,874 instances of “active rat signs,” which including sightings and droppings, at buildings and properties last year, or nearly double the 16,315 instances in 2014, according to the analysis. In the first three months of this year, there were 8,003 inspection reports of active rat signs, up from 6,787 in the same period last year.

City health officials said the results include initial and follow-up inspections and reflect the increasing number of inspections that are being carried out overall as part of the city’s rat reduction campaign.

Jason Munshi-South, a biology professor at Fordham University who has led “rat safaris” to observe the vermin in Columbus Park in Chinatown, said that while New York is doing more than other cities, it will never be able to entirely eradicate rats.

A major contributing factor is how the city collects trash: bags are left outside on the curb for hours before pick up the next morning. “It’s just an all-night buffet for the rats,” he said.

On Ninth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, rats chow down on trash bags piled outside restaurants and bars. Steve Belida, the chairman of a local block association, said he used to get the occasional rat complaint. Now he gets a steady stream.

Michael Deutsch, an entomologist with Arrow Exterminating on Long Island, said there is no “magic bullet’’ to reducing rats. “You can’t just go in and order an airstrike — and then leave,” he said. “Rat populations can rebound unless you are always pressing them.”

Even buildings that never have had a rat problem are now being inundated by those rodents. Larry Jayson said he recently saw a rat jump out of a trash bin in an apartment building that is next to a new tower under construction in Flatbush, Brooklyn. It was the largest rat he had ever seen.

“We’ve seen rats the size of Cleveland,” said Mr. Jayson, the executive director of Housing and Family Services of Greater New York, a nonprofit organization. “You’re unearthing and unleashing hell on those poor people who live next door.”

Under the city’s building code, developers are required to hire a licensed exterminator for any site where a building is being demolished. But there is no similar rule for new developments.

Simon H. Williams, a researcher at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, likened the impact of the construction on rats to “stepping on an ants nest.”

In Prospect Heights, rats have made themselves at home on a block of Lincoln Place that has attracted young families and middle-class professionals. A run-down building on the corner is being renovated while several new buildings are going up nearby, contributing to the local rat population.

On a recent night, black trash bags piled along a stretch of sidewalk known as “rat alley” seemed to crinkle on their own as rats squirmed inside. High-pitched squeaks filled the air. “It’s not the night before Christmas,” said Mr. Herrera, who lives next door.

Mr. Herrera has found gnawed chicken bones and rat droppings underneath his car hood. He spent $150 to replace chewed-up ignition wires. Walking down the street has become a source of anxiety for his 9-year-old daughter, Isabella Henry.

Despite numerous complaints to city officials — including dozens of calls to 311 — the rats keep turning up. Residents say they feast on garbage left outside the apartment building under renovation on the corner, which has failed 10 city health inspections since last year, according to records.

Getz Obstfeld, a co-owner of FSG Realty, which manages and partly owns the building, said that they have targeted rat holes, added more trash cans and removed construction debris.

Still, the rats keep coming.

“They love it over here, it’s up and coming,” said Russell Coit, 66, a retired maintenance supervisor who lives on the block. “They would like to invest in something over here, too.”

Pestilence

Disease

Death

Virus

Bacteria

Superbugs

Contagion

Epidemic

Pandemic

Spreading from one person to another

Perilous times have come

Pestilence spreading around the world

Pestilence in diverse places

Disease spreading around the world

Disease in diverse places

Disease increasing in frequency

Disease increasing in size

Disease increasing in strength

Disease increasing in durationIncreasing like the pains of a woman in labor