Lost Weekend

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Two followers of Harold Camping, wearing a dejected look, stand outside in a parking lot near Family Radio headquarters, Saturday 21 May, 2011: photo via International Business Times, 22 May 2011




The hope of believers in the universal rapture springboard death cult was mile high

The fall back into reality, not so good

Advertisement in New York City subway by the U.S. religious group Family Radio, a Christian radio network, warning of an impending Judgment Day, Times Square, New York, 13 May 2011. The designation of May 21 came from Family Radio president Harold Camping, who predicted that date through a series of mathematical calculations and the unraveling of codes behind the Bible story of the Great Flood: photo by Reuters/Shannon Stapleton

As darkness fell over the still existent world on the forecast day of doom the prophet was nowhere to be found

But the world darkness is always at its most obscure just before the dawn

Harold Camping, founder of Family Radio: photo by Associated Press, 2011; on Sunday 22 May, the morning after the end of the world which he had predicted, Camping appeared briefly at his front door, wearing tan slacks, a tucked-in polo shirt and a light jacket, telling reporters "It was a really tough weekend," but that he'd be back at work with a revised doomsday prophecy on Monday

From the far reaches of the endarkened world new signs and wonders yet came

Maybe all was not yet lost

Maybe the fat lady hadn't yet sung

Maybe she had just been clearing her throat before her final aria

Down there inside the volcano

Ash plume rising from 17:30 PM 21 May 2011 Grimsvötn volcano eruption, Iceland: photo by Matthew Roberts, taken between ~08:30 and ~10.45 UTC 22 May 2011 (Icelandic Meteorological Office)

The Grimsvötn volcano under the Vatnajokull glacier in southeast Iceland erupted at 5:30 PM on Saturday 21 May 2011, sending a 20-kilometer plume of volcanic ash, steam and smoke heavenward and triggering intense lightning activity in the vicinity of the volcano. According the the Icelandic Meteorological Office, the lightning storms were approximately 1,000 times more intense than those sparked by the 2010 Eyjafjallajokull eruption. The Civil Aviation Authority of the United Kingdom projected that ash emanating from the Grimsvötn volcanic eruption would reach UK domestic airspace by Tuesday 24 May.

Grimsvötn volcano eruption, Iceland, beginning at 5:30 on the evening of 21 May 2011: photo by Olaf Sigurjónsson (Icelandic Meteorological Office)

Grimsvötn volcano eruption, Iceland, beginning on the evening of 21 May 2011: photo by Olaf Sigurjónsson (Icelandic Meteorological Office)

Plume rising from Grimsvötn volcano eruption, Iceland, on the evening of 21 May 2011: photos by Olaf Sigurjónsson (Icelandic Meteorological Office)

Plume rising from the Grimsvötn volcano eruption, Iceland, on the evening of 21 May 2011: photos by Olaf Sigurjónsson (Icelandic Meteorological Office)

Farm covered in an ash cloud in Thorvaldsstadir: photo by Reuters, 22 May 2011

Car immersed in darkness due to ash fallout on Highway One, outside Kirkjubaejarklaustur: photo by Reuters, 22 May 2011

Sheep on a farm during ash fallout in Mulakot: photo by Reuters, 22 May 2011

The sun is seen through ash fallout on Highway One, outside the small town of Kirkjubaejarklaustur: photo by Reuters, 22 May 2011

Tire tracks are seen on a surface of volcanic ash deposit outside a gas station in Kirkjubaejarklaustur: photo by Reuters, 22 May 2011

Icelandic photographer Robert Reynisson covers the volcanic eruption at the edge of the ash fallout zone in Reykjavik: photo by Reuters, 22 May 2011 (via International Business Times)

Smoke rises from the Grimsvötn volcano under the Vatnajokull glacier in southeast Iceland: photo by Reuters, 22 May 2011