If you were expecting some kind of sun sign nonsense, forget it. This is real astrology. See the section above. Please note: this forecast is expressed in terms of Universal Time (UT).
"June starts out stormy," I warned, and thats just what happened. In Colorado, rain-swollen floods washed out part of Interstate 70, the states main east-west highway, on the 1st. A 24-mile stretch of the highway had to be closed for several days, forcing drivers of up to 30,000 vehicles a day to find another way across the mountains. Hundreds of homes had to be evacuated in the wake of the floods that developed following severe thunderstorms with heavy rains on the weekend of May 31-June 1. In the northern part of the state, a kayaker was killed in the raging waters. "It's the worse I've seen in about 10 years," said Margie Hanson, a Vail resident since 1967.
There would be more storms, more floods as the sequence of lunar geophysical stress factors continued off and on throughout the early part of the month. Flooding caused by heavy rains left more than a dozen people dead, and at least a dozen missing in southwestern Venezuela on the 4th. Hundreds of people were evacuated from their homes, as electricity was cut off and commercial flights were suspended in the region. Bridges and highways were also damaged by the high waters.
Devastating floods combined with a natural gas pipeline explosion to wreak incredible destruction in Mexico on the night of the 5th. Heavy rains sent a 100-foot-wide torrent carrying mud and rocks crashing down a mountainside into the pipeline near Balastrera, Mexico. The pipeline burst open, and there followed a series of explosions that left at least five dead and scores injured. "It was dark," said Jesus Cano, 46, who was visiting a friend at a repair shop when the water came rushing down. "There was a shudder and then it was like there was daylight." Roadside restaurants were nearly obliterated by the blast, which left tractor-trailer rigs twisted and charred. The main highway from Mexico City to the Gulf of Mexico was closed overnight. Apart from the explosion, the floodwaters alone destroyed hundreds of houses and damaged thousands more.
A tornado tore through a dozen villages in eastern Bangladesh on the 7th, killing one person and injuring about 100, while leaving at least 2,000 villagers homeless in the farming district of Noakhali, 120 kilometers (75 miles) east of the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka. Alas, that was just the beginning of a tragic month for Bangladesh.
I had mentioned that "storm and seismic risks will remain elevated all the way through to just past mid-month. That's because the solar eclipse window merges immediately into the northward lunar equatorial crossing on the 9th, which in turn melds with the lunar perigee on the 12th; and then the June 14 full moon effect takes hold and hangs on 'til the 17th." A pair of strong earthquakes rattled Taiwan June 9-10, measuring 6.3 and 6.5 on the Richter scale, close on the heels of the Moons northward equatorial crossing. (The monster 7.7 quake that killed more than 2,400 people in Taiwan on September 20, 1999 was associated with, among other things, another lunar declination factor; namely the south declination maximum on the 19th.)
Meanwhile, as the earth tossed in Taiwan, dark skies swirled over Bangladesh. A tropical storm struck parts of southern and eastern Bangladesh on the 10th, killing at least five villagers and injuring dozens, news reports said. The storm destroyed about 150 straw and bamboo huts, leaving nearly 1,000 people homeless in several villages in coastal Patuakhali district, according to the United News of Bangladesh. In nearby Satkhira district, at least 20 others were injured as more than 2,000 huts collapsed in the area. From there, it just got worse. After three days of incessant rains, the Khowai and Dhalai rivers overflowed on Wednesday the 11th, inundating about 50 villages in neighboring districts of Moulvibazar and Habiganj, and leaving some 50,000 people marooned in the region.
That same day, a half a world away, thunderstorms with 80 mph winds blew across the southern Plains and Tennessee, killing three people and cutting power to tens of thousands on the night of Wednesday the 11th. A utility worker was killed when he touched a live wire while working to restore power near Nashville after nightfall Wednesday. Storms racing overnight through Texas downed power lines and triggered lightning strikes, with one believed to have caused a fire that gutted a church in Hillsboro. In central Oklahoma, trees and power lines were scattered across roads, and electricity went out to nearly 18,000 customers.
Thursday brought more severe storms, as heavy downpours sent three rivers tumbling out of their banks in and around Puebla, Mexico. A statement released by the state government there said it was the most rain to hit the city in one day in 100 years. Floodwaters engulfed four neighborhoods in Puebla on Thursday the 12th, completely destroying 200 houses and damaging at least 300 more, according to Agustin Flores, secretary of public works for Puebla state.
At this point, per my forecast, the June 14 full moon effect had already taken hold and would hang on "'til the 17th," a period during which I predicted that "storm and seismic risks will remain elevated." And so it should come as no surprise that on the 15th, strong storms spread from the mid-Atlantic to the Lower and Middle Mississippi Valley and Texas. Flash flood and river flood warnings were in effect in parts of Ohio, Kentucky and West Virginia, and storms dumped between 4 and 6 inches of rain in the area surrounding Preble County in Ohio. Texas was battered by strong storms, with flash flood warnings in effect in an area stretching from the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area to near Houston as well as south-central Texas. The following day, a line of showers and thunderstorms stretched from the Mid-Atlantic to the western Gulf of Mexico, bringing flooding to West Virginia, Ohio and neighboring states. Severe storms also swept through Texas and Louisiana, with flash flood warnings in Arkansas. Rescuers had to scrounge for boats in West Virginia Monday, as flash flooding forced rural residents out of their homes. Charleston's hilltop Yeager Airport remained open to flights, but high water blocked a bridge on the main access road, cutting off travelers for more than two hours. The same flood that blocked the airport road also swamped a Federal Express depot. At least a dozen workers took refuge on the roof, where they watched helplessly as a FedEx truck was washed off the airport road bridge. About 5,000 American Electric Power customers in Kanawha County lost electricity, most because of trees falling onto power lines.
