As the hours before a strike deadline wound down the rhetoric between northwest airlines and its pilots union did not. With a deadline of 11:01 tonight, Northwest issued a report saying the economic damage of a month long pilots strike would be enough to rank among the top ten natural disasters of the decade. Minnesota Public Radio's Bill Catlin reports. The report contends a northwest Airlines strike easily meets the legal test for the president to intervene and send the pilots back to work. Northwest publicized the study roughly 12 hours before the strike deadline. Northwest officials have maintained the company is not lobbying for presidential intervention. The report was prepared for the US Transportation Department. Northwest commissioned the rep