So far around half a million people have been given mandatory evacuation orders, but it is believed that the wildfires in California have caused around one million people to flee their homes. It has become the biggest mass evacuation in the US since August 2005, in which hundreds of thousands of people were forced to flee their homes after Hurricane Katrina flooded New Orleans. Six hundred square miles of land has been burned up and thousands of properties have been destroyed. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has asked President Bush to upgrade the event to a "major disaster" to allow more federal aid to reach the state.

Quote: "The fires also forced the evacuation of more than 350,000 houses, most of them in San Diego County. With the area's average household size of 2.6 people, that means the evacuation could encompass nearly 910,000 people. "It's basically a mass migration here in San Diego County. The numbers we’re seeing are staggering," said Luis Monteagudo, a spokesman for the county's emergency effort. President Bush, who plans to visit the region Thursday, declared a federal emergency for seven counties, a move that will speed disaster-relief efforts, White House press secretary Dana Perino said.

Knowing the Scriptures that whoever touches Israel touches the apple of God's eye (Zechariah 2:8), and whoever curses Israel is cursed of God (Genesis 12:3), I can't help wondering about the United States and its present involvement in the Middle East peace process in relation to this latest disaster. I believe that the Hurricane Katrina disaster was allowed by God following US involvement in the disengagement from Gaza. These fires in California began Sunday, the same day US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived in Israel to discuss the upcoming peace conference to be held in Annapolis, Maryland. On Monday Condoleezza told journalists, "it is time for the establishment of a Palestinian state". Is it possible these fires are a warning to the US from God not to be involved in the dividing of His land?

Zechariah 12:9
And it shall come to pass in that day, [that] I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.

Source MSNBC, Haaretz