Apocalypse Almost: Rapture Has World on Tenterhooks

Warnings by a U.S. fundamentalist preacher that Saturday is Judgment Day have sent some people into hiding or scrambling to repent, while others are planning parties to wave off good Christians as they are beamed up to heaven.

Eighty-nine-year-old tele-evangelist Harold Camping has predicted that at 6:00 pm local time in each of the world's regions the Rapture will happen and good Christians will be beamed up to heaven.

In the light of the prediction, thousands of ethnic Hmong converged on northwestern Dien Bien province a few weeks ago after hearing broadcasts on Camping's global religious broadcasting network, Family Radio, that Jesus was coming on May 21.

The Vietnamese government said some in the huge gathering were calling for a breakaway Hmong kingdom, and disrupted their wait for Christ, sending several hundred fleeing into the forests to hide, a resident told Agence France Presse.

But their families are still in the region, waiting for Christ's return, the resident said.

In Ciudad Juarez, one of the hardest hit cities in Mexico's drug wars, huge billboards proclaim that "Christ is coming back on May 21."

According to the authorities, the apocalyptic message hasn't provoked panic or hoarding, but one resident, Rosy Alderete, said she was "worried by the coincidence" that earthquakes have rocked the world in recent months.

Camping's prophecy says the end will be signaled in each region by powerful earthquakes, after which the good will be whisked up to heaven and the not-so-good will suffer through hell on earth until October 21, when God will pull the plug on the planet once and for all.

Britain's The Guardian newspaper called the looming Rapture "the fundamentalist Christian equivalent of the last helicopter out of Saigon," referring to the U.S. pull-out after the long Vietnam war in 1975.

In the United States, where Camping's evangelizing organization is based, some people have been quitting their jobs and hitting the road to urge others to repent before it's too late.

Gregory LeCorps left his job "in a medical facility" weeks ago to take his wife and five young children on the road and warn others that the Rapture is really nigh, the Journal News in New York wrote.

"We're in the final days," he was quoted by the lower Hudson valley newspaper as saying as he handed out leaflets.

LeCorps said he hopes to be on a beach in South Carolina by Saturday, the newspaper said.

A New York couple, Abby Haddad Carson and her husband, Robert Carson, a few years ago stopped saving money to send their kids to college and started going on missions that the world will end on Saturday.

Their children are not only worried about whether or not they will be able to afford to go to college, but also somewhat embarrassed by their parents' actions.

Then, there are those who look on the bright side.

New York City Mayor Bloomberg -- who is Jewish and therefore, according to Camping's prophecy, unlikely to be beamed up to sit alongside Jesus and God in heaven -- said on his weekly radio show on Friday that he would suspend alternate-side parking in New York if the world ends on Saturday.

The much-reviled alternate-side parking rule requires New Yorkers to move their cars from one side of the street to the other to allow street cleaning to be carried out.

And some are cashing in on money-making opportunities.

Craigslist was running tens of thousands of ads from non-believers offering to buy the worldly goods of those who think they're going to heaven, while a group of U.S. atheists has sold hundreds of contracts to rescue people's pets.

A group of Christians, who think Camping's prophecy is bunk, will be tracking the Rapture and posting reports on the Internet each time it doesn't happen.

One of the first places to be hit, according to Camping, would be New Zealand, where 6:00 pm happens at 0600 GMT.

If Camping's prediction doesn't pan out, one idea is gathering steam on Twitter to create an ersatz Rapture.

A tweet suggests laying out old clothing and shoes on pavements and lawns on Saturday to give the impression that someone has indeed been beamed up.