Texas storms leave 5 dead, 1 missingDALLAS - Forecasters predicted more heavy thunderstorms in the Plains over the holiday weekend after two days of storms and flooding that left five people dead and one missing in central Texas.
Dozens of people were plucked from rising waters on Friday, and Gov. Rick Perry activated National Guard troops to be deployed in Waco, Austin and San Antonio for the weekend.
Near Fredericksburg, authorities were looking for a man whose sport utility vehicle was swept away during storms that have dumped about 8 inches of rain in the area since Thursday.
Lt. Jim Judd of the Gillespie County sheriff's office said about 30 people spent Friday looking for Edgar Garcia, 22, who called his mother after he drove around a barricade blocking a swollen creek and got stuck.
Three people died in Killeen, police said. The bodies of two brothers, ages 5 and 6, were found early Friday in a submerged SUV. The boys were riding with their mother and two siblings Thursday when their vehicle was wiped off the road into a gully.
Rescuers saved the mother and two siblings, but the swift-moving water rose too quickly for rescuers to help the boys trapped inside, said Garland Potvin, a Bell County justice of the peace.
Elsewhere in Killeen, the body of a 20-year-old man caught in rushing water was found lodged along a culvert, Potvin said.
Outside Copperas Cove, a husband and wife died late Thursday after attempting to cross floodwaters in their vehicle, said Bill Price, a Coryell County justice of the peace.
About 100 homes, apartment buildings and businesses sustained minor damage Friday, and a few minor injuries were reported, said Dennis Baker, the Bell County emergency management coordinator.
In Kansas, rivers and creeks continued to rise Friday in the central and south-central parts of the state following a downpour two days earlier. The most serious flooding was expected along the Arkansas River in Harvey County, the
National Weather Service said.
Floodwaters closed off all roads leading into the central Kansas town of New Cambria, Saline County emergency management officials said Friday. Rising rivers also covered many of the streets in the small town east of Salina.
At least 60 homes and businesses were flooded but no injuries were reported, and only voluntary evacuations had been ordered.
Spain evaluating scale of flood damageMADRID (AFP) - The Spanish government on Friday said it had agreed a process to calculate the extent of severe flood damage and get emergency aid to the areas worst affected after several days of heavy rain in much of the country.
Six regions in south, central -- including Madrid -- and southeast Spain were badly hit and the cabinet approved an immediate evaluation of the damage and formulated measures to provide financial aid.
However, First Deputy Prime Minister Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega said it was too early to put a figure on such aid.
Spain's agricultural sector has borne the brunt of the damage with flooding swamping 100,000 hectares (247,000 acres) of vineyards in the central region of Castille-La Mancha.
On Friday, agricultural unions estimated some 500,000 hectares (1.3 million acres) of crops had been affected.
The rain also caused travel misery for thousands of commuters Wednesday and Thursday with mainline rail services between the capital and the major southeastern cities of Valencia and Murcia interrupted all day while some roads were closed.
On the plus side, the rains fell after three years of intensive drought affecting much of the country.
China hit by deadly flooding, severe droughtBEIJING (AFP) - Torrential rain in southwest China triggered flash floods and mudslides that have left 21 dead, while a neighbouring region is suffering its worst drought in 60 years, state media reported Friday.
A further 11 people are missing following the rains in Sichuan province and Chongqing municipality, Xinhua news agency said, in the latest extreme weather to ravage the country.
More than 360 people have been hurt and 112,000 evacuated in the disasters in a region that only last year endured its worst drought in half a century.
Meanwhile, more than 1.6 million people in Gansu province to the north face drinking water shortages due to the worst drought there since the 1940s.
The dry spell, which has had no significant rainfall in some areas for more than two months, is endangering crops or delaying planting on 1.46 million hectares (3.6 million acres) of cropland, Xinhua quoted officials with the Gansu provincial flood control and drought relief office as saying.
China last year suffered a range of extreme weather events including exceptionally strong typhoons, floods, and droughts, which meteorological officials have partly attributed to the affects of climate change.
Officials warned recently that similar weather is expected in 2007.
Notre Dame basilica spire falls in stormSOUTH BEND, Ind. - A powerful storm toppled a small spire from the University of Notre Dame's Basilica of the Sacred Heart and left more than 16,000 people without power Wednesday.
One person died when a tree fell on his car.
At Notre Dame, one of four smaller spires that surround the basilica's main spire fell about 60 feet to the ground, bringing with it some bricks and mortar. No one was injured.
"That's a fairly significant amount of damage to one of the university's most important landmarks," spokesman Dennis Brown said. Several large trees on campus also were damaged, he said.
The Tuesday evening storm brought heavy rain and wind up to 70 mph to LaPorte and St. Joseph counties, the
National Weather Service said. Several people reported seeing funnel clouds, and the weather service was trying to confirm whether any tornadoes touched down.
There were reports of trees falling on cars and homes across northern Indiana and into Ohio and Michigan, meteorologist Patrick Murphy (news, bio, voting record) said. The storm initially knocked out power to 52,000 customers of Northern Indiana Public Service Co. About 16,000 customers, most in Gary and Portage, remained without electricity Wednesday, the company said.
Thousands evacuated as New Jersey wildfire spreadsWASHINGTON (AFP) - A wildfire raged across the northeastern US state of New Jersey on Wednesday, forcing thousands of people to evacuate in the latest in a series of such blazes to strike the United States this month.
The fire spread through a nature reserve area in the southern part of the state overnight after being ignited when an F-16 jet fighter on a routine training mission dropped a flare on dry pinelands.
The warplane had been practicing the use of a self-defense system in which flares are fired as decoys to mislead heat-seeking missiles, a spokesman for the New Jersey National Guard told the New York Times.
Around 2,500 people had to be evacuated from their homes and as many as 13,500 acres (5,400 hectares) of land were torched, a New Jersey fire official told a news conference.
"We still have a lot of work to do with the fire. We need to get containment around the perimeter," he said.
"This fire will not be out until mother nature puts it out with a really good rainstorm," he said, adding that firefighters had only about 10 percent of the fire contained by morning.
Fires last week tore through California and Florida, forcing mass evacuations and burning hundreds of thousands of acres but causing no casualties.
Hundreds more flee as fire ragesFirefighters pushed back Tuesday against a massive wildfire along the Florida-Georgia border that jumped a containment line and forced hundreds of people to evacuate their homes.
Thunderstorms were forecast for most of the state today, but firefighters worried they would not be enough.
"It is so hot and dry, there is no moisture whatsoever, and the winds are our biggest concern," said Nina Barrow, a U.S. Forest Service spokeswoman at the fire command center at Olustee, Fla.
Steady winds off the water were forecast to continue today.
Approximately 725 homes have been evacuated in the Florida border area, but firefighters have managed to keep the flames from destroying any structures, the U.S. Forest Service said.
The latest evacuations began Monday night after the fire line was breached, threatening homes west of U.S. 441, Barrow said.
The blaze raced through the Okefenokee Swamp in southeast Georgia and into Florida after being started by lightning more than a week ago. By late Tuesday, the fire had burned approximately 250,000 acres — much of it swamp and timber owned by the federal government, state governments and lumber companies.
"It's a lot of swampland in there on the Georgia side," said Marlette Lacey, spokeswoman for the Joint Fire Information Center at a command center at Waycross, Ga. "It makes it harder to get to, to try and contain."
The fire has consumed 110,500 acres in Florida, where it is 50% contained, fire officials said. In Georgia, where nearly 140,000 acres have burned, the fire remains only 15% contained, Lacey said.
Smoke lifted enough to open Interstates 10 and 75 in Florida. Drivers were warned that periodic closures were possible.
The dry gusts of wind have whipped up other fires. The National Interagency Fire Center reported seven active fires in Georgia, burning 283,617 acres, and 14 in Florida, burning 179,608 acres.
Thousands of firefighters were battling the blazes, aided by helicopters and tanker airplanes dropping water and fire retardant.
Winds were blowing smoke to the west, where it was visible in Montgomery, Ala., and beyond, said Scott Unger, meteorologist with the National Weather Service.
Other wildfires were keeping firefighters busy across the country. One fire has burned 117 square miles in northern Minnesota and Canada, destroying more than 100 cabins and other small structures.
In New Jersey, a wildfire started by a jet flare burned 11,000 acres of woodlands, forced thousands of people from their homes and closed down major roadways, according to the New Jersey Forest Fire Service.
Kryn Westhoven, a spokesman for the state Department of Military Affairs, said the fire was caused by a flare dropped from an F-16 fighter on a training mission.
"Usually they burn out before they hit the ground; this one didn't," Westhoven said.
Residents from several developments in Ocean County, including several senior housing complexes in Barnegat, were evacuated.
Hundreds flee massive wildfire in FloridaLAKE CITY, Fla. — Authorities evacuated hundreds of homes after a massive wildfire along the Georgia-Florida border jumped a containment line overnight, authorities said Tuesday.
Firefighters pushed the flames back to the containment line, but dry weather and 15 mph wind in north Florida was expected to further hinder their work.
"If we can just get through today," said Russell Hubright, a U.S. Forest Service spokesman.
Between 250 and 500 homes west of U.S. 441 had to be evacuated for a second time when the fire line was breached, Florida Highway Patrol Lt. Michael Burroughs said. An additional 570 people who were ordered out of homes east of the roadway were still waiting to return.
The wildfire had raced through the Okefenokee Swamp in southeast Georgia and into northern Florida after being started by lightning more than a week ago. By Tuesday, it had burned 109,000 acres in Florida and 139,813 acres of swampland in Georgia — nearly 390 square miles in all.
Flames jumped a containment line at the fire's western edge, but firefighters used bulldozers and water-dropping helicopters to extinguish them, said John Speaks, deputy incident commander with the forest service. The fire was about 1½ miles from U.S. 441.
On the western edge of the Okefenokee Swamp in Georgia, Fargo residents were told to stay alert as wind forecast at up to 20 mph pushed the blaze against fire breaks plowed between the swamp and the city of 380 people.
"Everybody's being told not to let their guard down, don't unpack," said Laura Polant, a fire information officer in Fargo. "Residents are still being told to be prepared to leave, because the call can come at any time."
In Florida, the blaze was 50% contained Tuesday. The smoke had lifted enough to open Interstates 10 and 75 to traffic, but drivers were warned that periodic closures were still possible.
Another large wildfire, in northeastern Minnesota and Ontario, could be brought under control by the end of the week, officials said. No one has been seriously hurt in the fire, which has burned 117 square miles of Minnesota and Canada, but many cabins and smaller structures — more than 100 in all — have been destroyed.
Extreme weather, fires befall nationNEW YORK - Nature's fury made life miserable Wednesday from one end of the nation to the other, with people forced out of their homes by wildfires near both coasts and the Canadian border and by major flooding in the Midwest.
And although the calendar still said spring, the first named storm of the year was whipping up surf on the beaches of the Southeast.
Overall, it wasn't quite a day for the record books.
"It's a major flood,"
National Weather Service meteorologist Suzanne Fortin said Wednesday of the flooding in Missouri. "It won't be a record breaker, but it will be in the top three."
However, a three-week-old fire in southern Georgia had become that state's biggest in five decades after charring 167 square miles of forest and swamp.
Smoke-filled air created a burning smell and a dusting of ashes that coated cars and buildings through much of Florida and southeastern Georgia. The haze over most of Florida even closed several highways and sent people with breathing problems indoors.
The flooding was produced by the drenching weekend thunderstorms across the Plains states that also devastated Greensburg, Kan. In addition to 11 tornado deaths, two drowning deaths were blamed on the storms, one each in Oklahoma and Kansas.
High water had poured over the tops of at least 20 levees along the Missouri River and other streams in the state, authorities said Wednesday.
Missouri National Guard troops were helping. And Highway Patrol troopers were working 24-hour shifts near Big Lake, a village town of about 150 permanent residents in the state's northwest corner, which was inundated by five levee breaks along the Missouri River and four smaller ones on other streams, said patrol Lt. John Hotz.
No injuries were reported but the Missouri Water Patrol rescued about 20 people from their flooded homes, including Glenn Burger, who had the patrol return him to his home Wednesday to rescue his two pet cockatiels.
"I've had them about five years and I hated to lose them," said Burger, 78, who lived through floods in 1984 and 1993. "This is the last one. I'm through. I'm going to move to town."
In Missouri's Jackson County, authorities evacuated 300 to 400 residents of Levasy on Wednesday. At least a dozen homes were partially under water from the Missouri River, a dispatcher said.
In central Missouri, the state capital, Jefferson City, was preparing for flooding. After floods in 1993 and 1995, the city raised the elevation of its riverside sewage treatment plant, and the federal government bought out scores of homes on the north shore of the river, but the airport and businesses are still vulnerable.
On the West Coast, in view of many Los Angeles residents, a blaze had covered more than 800 acres in the city's sprawling Griffith Park behind the iconic Griffith Observatory.
The danger to homes south of the park eased Wednesday and many of the hundreds of residents evacuated overnight were allowed to return.
No flames were showing by evening, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa told a press conference at the observatory, and firefighters expected full containment by Thursday night.
"The tide is turning in our favor," the mayor said.
At least 30 companies of firefighters were to remain in case the 817-acre blaze came back to life.
The fire appeared to have been accidental, said Battalion chief John Miller, who oversees arson investigations.
The fire destroyed Dante's View, a trailside terraced garden on Mount Hollywood.
"This is a tragic sunrise," City Councilman Tom LaBonge said while surveying the damage. "You look right there and you'd think you were at the observatory looking at Mars."
In the Southeast, a wildfire in northern Florida's Bradford County had forced the evacuation of about 250 homes, said Annaleasa Winter, a state forestry spokeswoman. That fire had blackened 16,000 to 18,000 acres and was 35 percent contained on Wednesday night.
Florida Gov. Charlie Crist said the state had more than 220 active fires Wednesday that had charred a total of 125 square miles.
Officials in southeastern Georgia issued a mandatory evacuation Wednesday for an area including the town of Moniac, saying that by early Thursday it may be in the path of a 107,000-acre blaze, or 167 square miles, in the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, the largest recorded blaze since state record-keeping began in 1957.
Smoke was spreading across wide areas of Florida as wind circulated around Subtropical Storm Andrea, centered about 100 miles off the Georgia coast with top sustained wind around 45 mph. The National Weather Service forecast that the storm would show little movement and dissipate near the coast in four days.
Battling the blazes won't get much immediate help from rain. Forecasters said no significant downpours were expected over land through at least Thursday morning. The storm's lightning could also spark off more fires, meteorologists said.
Elsewhere, a wildfire near the Canadian border in northeastern Minnesota had covered more than 34 square miles Wednesday, adding more than 8 square miles in one day, authorities said. Since it was spotted over the weekend, it has destroyed 45 buildings, including multimillion-dollar homes, and firefighters said it was just 5 percent contained.
More than 100 people had been removed from their homes in the path of the fire.
First named '07 Atlantic storm forms near coastMIAMI - The first named storm of the year formed Wednesday off the southeastern U.S. coast, more than three weeks before the official start of the Atlantic hurricane season, forecasters said.
Subtropical Storm Andrea had top sustained winds around 45 mph Wednesday afternoon and didn’t appear to be much of a threat, the National Hurricane Center in Miami said. Still, a tropical storm watch was issued for parts of Georgia and Florida, meaning tropical storm conditions are possible within 36 hours.
“We’re not looking at this system strengthening significantly,” said Richard Pasch, a senior hurricane specialist at the center.
The storm’s wind, however, has been blowing smoke from wildfires across Georgia and Florida.
It didn’t appear the wind would hinder firefighting efforts, said Jim Harrell, a spokesman for Florida’s Division of Forestry. But those battling the blazes won’t get much immediate help from rain — forecasters said no significant downpours were expected over land through at least Thursday morning. The storm’s lightning could also spark more fires, meteorologists said.
At 2 p.m. ET, Andrea was centered about 100 miles southeast of Savannah, Ga., and about 135 miles northeast of Daytona Beach. The storm was moving west at about 3 mph.
Some wave erosion
Wind-driven waves have been causing coastal erosion in South Carolina, Georgia and Florida, and the ocean has lapped at beachfront homes and condominiums.
Coast Guard officials in South Carolina said they had rescued one of two kayakers who had been missing since Tuesday when they were seen leaving Seabrook Island, S.C. Jeremy Scott, 28, of Atlanta, was found about five miles east of Fripp Island. Authorities were continuing to search for Stephen Lee, 27, of Atlanta.
Subtropical systems are hybrid weather formations that are usually weaker than hurricanes and tropical storms. They are kind of a half-breed, sharing characteristics of tropical systems, which get their power from warm ocean water at their centers, and more typical bad weather that forms when warm and cold fronts collide, Pasch said.
Forecasters said Andrea has the warm center characteristic of tropical storms but its core is not particularly well defined. In addition, its winds are farther out from the center than they would be in a tropical storm.
Typically, about one subtropical storm forms each year, but they often turn into tropical storms. That doesn’t appear to be the case with Andrea, senior hurricane specialist Jack Beven said. It only has a small area of warmer water to draw energy from and is facing dry wind.
Pre-season storms do happen
He said it wasn’t unusual for the storm to form in May, outside the hurricane season that starts June 1 and end Nov. 30. Eighteen tropical storms and four hurricanes have been recorded in that month since 1851; the earliest hurricane had made landfall on the U.S. was Alma in northwest Florida on June 9, 1966.
“What we call the hurricane season is a totally manmade creation. Nature doesn’t always pay attention to that,” Beven said.
Private and university forecasters have predicted that the 2007 season will be especially active, producing up to 17 tropical storms and hurricanes and a “well above average” possibility of at least one striking the U.S. The federal government plans to release its predictions May 22.
The Atlantic basin has been in a busy period for hurricanes since 1995. Some federal forecasters believe this is part of a natural cycle. But the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a U.N.-sponsored group, says global warming caused by humans has led to an increase in stronger hurricanes.
Wildfire scorches LA's Griffith parkLOS ANGELES - A wildfire roiled through rugged brush-covered hills in the city's sprawling Griffith Park on Tuesday, triggering evacuations of the city zoo, a museum and other popular sites as dangerously hot and dry conditions plagued Southern California.
A towering column of smoke rose over the middle of the city as hundreds of firefighters and five water-dropping helicopters rushed to Los Angeles' landmark park — a mix of wilderness, cultural venues, horse and hiking trails and recreational facilities set on more than 4,000 acres on the hills between Hollywood and the San Fernando Valley.
Residents of neighborhoods along the park's edge nervously watched billowing smoke.
"Most of us saw this on TV and raced home to turn on our sprinklers," said Chad Griffin, 33, a resident of the Los Feliz district. "This is an early wake-up call for everyone in this area."
The blaze was reported at 1:30 p.m. and grew to 150-200 acres. Containment was estimated at 20-25 percent by late afternoon, said Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.
No homes were immediately threatened but authorities said the battle would continue into the night. The city requested help from the state and two retardant-dropping airplanes arrived in the late afternoon.
Authorities were investigating whether the fire broke out after a person discarded a cigarette at one of the park's golf courses, a law enforcement official familiar with the matter told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the investigation was ongoing.
The person tried to put out the fire but was badly burned and was taken to Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center, the official said.
Deputy Fire Chief Mario Rueda told a news conference that authorities were questioning a person who walked out of the brush onto a golf course.
"He's not a suspect. He's just somebody we're questioning," Rueda said.
The man, possibly homeless, told investigators he fell asleep while smoking and was burned on his stomach and shoulders, said a high-ranking city official who requested anonymity since the arson unit had not announced its findings.
"The man claims he fell asleep on the trail, and his injuries appear to be consistent with that version," the official said.
At one point, flames came very close to a firefighting crew using a hose to douse flames near a pedestrian bridge. Aerial news footage showed flames roaring up a hill and the firefighters retreating under the bridge. Crews behind them tried to beat back the fire with hoses and moments later a helicopter dropped water on the area. Fire officials said none of the firefighters were injured.
The fire erupted on the second day of a heat spell. The National Weather Service said downtown hit 97 degrees, 23 degrees above normal, tying the record for the date. Humidity fell to just 9 percent during the day. The region was already woefully short of moisture, with rainfall measured downtown more than 11 inches below normal.
Rangers evacuated the park's Vermont Canyon area, which includes the Los Angeles Zoo, two golf facilities, a merry-go-round and a magnate school, said Jane Kolb, a city Department of Recreation and Parks spokeswoman.
Fire Capt. Rex Vilaubi said the evacuations were voluntary and the areas were not in imminent danger of being overrun.
The Autry National Center, which includes a museum of Western artifacts, was evacuated. Staff threw tarps over its collection of memorabilia and artifacts to protect them in case the sprinkler system went off, said Faith Raiguel, chief operating officer.
"We can see the fire from here ... it's up the hill," she said.
"It looks really dark and evil and ominous," Brian Wotring, 35, catering manager at the museum cafe, said before jumping into his car. "It looks really scary."
The fire burned to the east of Griffith Observatory and it was closed down although it never appeared threatened, said director Ed Krupp. However, tourists were sent away and staff was sent home.
Departing tourists appeared calm and stopped to take pictures of the flames.
"It's far enough away that I don't feel threatened," said Katherine Coates, 24, of Little Rock, Ark. "Right now it's more spectacle than anything else."
Heavy smoke and debris may have caused a momentary drop in power in a high voltage transmission line that runs by the park, said Joe Ramallo, a Los Angeles Department of Water and Power spokesman.
The dip in power was observed around downtown as energy was rerouted to other transmission lines, Ramallo said.
In March a fire burned 150 acres of brush in Griffith Park. Authorities said it was started by two boys playing with fire.
To the south in San Diego County, a 1,250-acre fire at Camp Pendleton was 80 percent contained late Tuesday afternoon and the rate of spread had "significantly slowed," the Marine Corps said in a press release. No injuries or structural damage were reported. The fire began Monday on a training range.
In neighboring Orange County, a 140-acre fire in Featherly Regional Park was 70 percent contained.
Several daily heat records were broken Monday. Among them, Los Angeles International Airport recorded a high of 88, beating the 80-degree record set in 1984.
Midwest flooding could near 1993 levelsAGENCY, Mo. - Five burst levees along the Missouri River sent a deluge of water that submerged the tiny town of Big Lake on Tuesday, as thousands in the region fled their homes amid warnings that the flooding could near the devastation of 1993.
The levees broke Monday south of Big Lake and the rush of river water immersed the town on Tuesday, said Mark Sitherwood, presiding commissioner of Holt County. Many of the buildings in town had several feet of water inside, said Holt County Clerk Kathy Kunkel.
"The town is a loss. At this time, we don't know, but it looks like that's what's going to happen," he said.
No injuries were reported. Most Big Lake residents evacuated Monday but a handful had to be rescued by boat Tuesday, Sitherwood said.
Big Lake is about 95 miles northwest of Kansas City and had a population of 127, according to 2000 census reports. Nearby, the communities of Craig and Fortescue also were being threatened, Sitherwood said.
In Agency, a town of about 100 surrounded on three sides by the Platte River, most had already evacuated. The town was hit hard in 1993 in one of the most costly and devastating floods in U.S. history. That flood claimed 48 lives in the Midwest and caused $18 billion in damage.
By midday Tuesday, a few homes were partially submerged, as were nearby roads and a cemetery.
"It isn't as bad as 1993," said Pauline Gibson, 71, who did not evacuate her trailer home was packed if she had to leave quickly. "But it's working on it. We don't want it like '93, but they say more rain is coming and that's not good."
Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt declared a state of emergency and mobilized National Guard troops to help. At least 19 Kansas counties declared local disaster emergencies.
"Once we've dealt with the entire flood across the state, we'll begin to evaluate the damage and find out what kind of assistance might be available to compensate or help people impacted by the damage," Blunt said Tuesday at a news conference in St. Joseph.
River towns across much of Missouri were evacuating low-lying areas Tuesday or seeking help filling and stacking sandbags.
"We're scrambling around here," said Steve Mellis, who was volunteering near the central Missouri town of Easley as residents moved boats and equipment to higher ground.
Two-thirds of the town of Mosby, 20 miles northeast of Kansas City, was already under 2 to 4 feet of water from the overflowing Fishing River, said D.C. Rogers, Clay County director of emergency services. He said the town's 242 residents began evacuating Monday morning. By evening, only one route into the community remained open.
Evacuations were voluntary in several western Missouri counties, but a mandatory evacuation was imposed in Parkville, just across the Missouri River from Kansas City, said Jessica Robinson, a spokeswoman for the governor.
Communities across the central Plains faced flooding from the weekend-long thunderstorms that spawned the deadly tornado that wiped out Greensburg, Kan.
Parts of Missouri, Iowa and Kansas received 4 to 8 inches of rain in a 24-hour period, the National Weather Service said. In some areas, Tuesday morning was the first time in several days that rain wasn't falling, but runoff was still raising streams and rivers.
Flooding in Oklahoma was blamed for the drowning death of a man whose car was swept off a county road. A Kansas man died when his vehicle overturned in a water-filled ditch near Wichita, Butler County officials said.
Nearly 1,600 people were urged to evacuate the southwest Iowa town of Red Oak on Monday as the Nishnabotna River rose out of its banks.
Levees broke near Willow Creek in the western Iowa town of Missouri Valley, and some residents had to be evacuated by boat Monday, said Mayor Randy McHugh. "Appliances are just floating around," he said Monday.
Authorities rescued about 500 people Monday from flooding around Topeka, Kan., said Dave Bevans, a spokesman for Shawnee County emergency operations. Officials reported similar evacuations in Saline County, about 100 miles to the west, and flooding forced the evacuation of New Cambria, a town of about 150 people northeast of Salina.
Since the 1993 floods in the Mississippi and Missouri river basins, only two or three other flooding episodes have been comparable to what forecasters are predicting in the next several days, weather service meteorologist Andy Bailey said.
There will be differences though. The 1993 flood was caused by melting snow combined with heavy rain over a two-month period. After that, state buyouts of property on flood plains left fewer residences in danger of future floods.
"But make no mistake," Bailey added, "this is a major flood."
White House denies Iraq war hampers home rescue effortsWASHINGTON (AFP) - The White House on Tuesday dismissed charges that the Iraq war effort had stripped the United States of resources needed to fight catastrophes at home in the wake of a devastating Kansas tornado.
"I think they're separate issues... just as in a time of war, you know, the Pentagon plans for more than one conflict at a time, you have to be able to do more than one thing at a time," White House spokesman Tony Snow said.
"So the fact that you have people deployed in a time of war to protect Americans is important, but at the same time you also maintain your capability of dealing with domestic concerns."
US President George W. Bush is to visit Greensburg on Wednesday after the small Kansas prairie town was flattened by a tornado on Friday which left at least 10 people dead.
Bush is still haunted by the specter of Hurricane Katrina, which ravaged New Orleans in August 2005, and left US authorities heavily under fire for failing to act quickly to send in rescue and emergency services.
Greensburg, a town of some 1,800 residents about 120 miles (200 kilometers) west of Wichita, was virtually obliterated by the giant twister which struck late Friday, and Democratic Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius has already complained of a lack of lifting equipment to help the rescue effort.
She charged that the necessary machines had been deployed out of the US for the war in Iraq, increasing pressure on Bush locked in a standoff with the Democratic-controlled Congress over funding the conflict.
Democrats are seeking ways to force Bush and the Republican administration to bring home US troops from Iraq, and touched off new skirmish on Tuesday, with a plan to finance the unpopular war for just three months, while retaining the option to cut funding in July.
With the approach of hurricane season in June, the issue of the country's readiness to deal with natural disasters is likely to shoot to the top of the agenda again.
Snow said the country would be ready for the new hurricane season. "We certainly hope so. Again, you don't want to make predictions. But on the other hand, there is an enormous amount of planning going on so that you have the flexibility."
Much of the focus is on the National Guard, whose members serve each US state, often in domestic emergencies, but also has members deployed in Iraq.
Snow acknowleged that many states had "expressed concerns about National Guard levels into the future. And they have talked about Iraq deployments."
"It's one of the reasons why the president talked about expanding the military, in part to take pressure off National Guard units," he added.
But in the case of Kansas, he said, out of the 6,800 available National Guard, only 566 were needed to help in the crisis.
Earlier Snow reiterated that the US administration was "eager to provide what Kansas needs."
But he added: "It's interesting because as far as we know, the only thing the governor has requested are FM radios. There has been no request of the National Guard for heavy equipment."
Authorities said Friday's twister damaged or destroyed about 90 percent of the commercial and residential buildings in Greensburg.
Weekend storms signal deadly yearThe weekend blitz of tornadoes in Kansas and the Plains puts 2007 on track to be one of the busiest and deadliest tornado years in a decade, severe-storms meteorologists said Sunday.
"Even if the year stopped right now, it would be the deadliest year we've had since 1999," said Greg Forbes, severe-weather expert for The Weather Channel.
The huge twister that leveled the south-central Kansas town of Greensburg late Friday, killing at least eight people, is the first tornado of the year rated at the top scale of a new rating system adopted in February to measure intensity.
The tornado, which carved a 22-mile path and reached 1.7 miles wide, had winds estimated up to 205 mph, the National Weather Service reported.
The last one to reach such intensity was May 3, 1999, when an F-5 tornado — considered the most powerful under the old rating system — slammed an Oklahoma City suburb, killing 36 people.
Forecasters predicted more intense storms in the nation's heartland today and through the week. A slow-moving system from the West continues to draw warm, moist air from the Gulf of Mexico, triggering violent thunderstorms from Oklahoma and Kansas up to the Dakotas and Minnesota.
"Considering that we're probably going to be close to 600 (tornado) reports already this year, this season is probably going to be one of the busier we've had since 1998-99," said Dan McCarthy, severe-weather meteorologist at the federal Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla.
The annual average for the past 10 years is 1,272 tornadoes.
This year's 69 fatalities are more than twice the usual number by this date and the worst of the season may just be starting. The prediction center says May averages the most tornadoes each year, followed by June and April.
Ten people died in this weekend's storms: eight in the Greensburg area and two others in Kansas.
The deadliest tornado day on record was April 3, 1974, when 330 people died on the first day of a "super outbreak" of 148 tornadoes in 13 states.
This year, "We've had a lot of bad luck in terms of where these tornadoes have hit," Forbes said, noting twisters that killed six or more people in towns in Florida, Alabama, Texas and Georgia.
Before this weekend, 44 of the first 59 storm fatalities of 2007 were mobile home residents.
The Greensburg tornado was so significant that McCarthy drove from Oklahoma to head a quick-response team to examine the damage and rate the tornado's intensity.
Florida fire situation 'critical,' 1 neighborhood evacuatedTALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Wildfire conditions in Florida are considered critical because parts of the state are dry and winds are gusty, state officials said Monday as they monitored a large fire on the east coast and a smaller fire in the Panhandle forced evacuations.
About 20 homes near Freeport in Walton County in the Panhandle were evacuated Monday morning as a 300-acre fire threatened the neighborhood, said Jim Harrell, a spokesman for the state Division of Forestry.
With humidity at dangerously low levels in much of the inland part of the state and winds gusting over 20 mph in many places, "conditions are critical," Harrell said.
"It's getting interesting and I don't think it's going to get better soon," added state Emergency Management Director Craig Fugate.
Causing the most concern was a large 6,100 acre fire about 4 miles west of Ormond Beach on Florida's east coast.
Harrell said tankers were dropping fire retardant in an area between that fire and a subdivision called Rima Ridge, hoping to keep the blaze away from homes.
"They're ready for evacuation on short notice, but so far they're still in their homes," Harrell said.
Firefighters were also working another large fire, covering almost 900 acres between Eustis and DeLand in central Florida.
In all, there were almost 200 separate fires burning Monday in Florida, covering about 19,000 acres. Nearly 50 of those started on Sunday, about half of them caused by lightning from a line of thunderstorms that moved through the state too quickly to offer much relief in the way of rain, Harrell said.
So far, no injuries have been reported in any of the fires.
SRI LANKA: Over 120,000 affected by severe flooding in westCOLOMBO, 7 May 2007 (IRIN) - "Weather Gods Show No Mercy!" That is how the headline of Saturday's edition of Colombo's "The Island" newspaper described the torrential rains on 3 and 4 May that flooded much of western Sri Lanka.
In Colombo, the capital city, routine commerce and most vehicular traffic, including some railway lines, came to a standstill and a large sinkhole developed in one of the city's main corridors, the Galle Road, causing massive traffic delays and diversions.
Voicing a common complaint, Sunil Lai Upali, one of the city's numerous three-wheel scooter taxi drivers said: "I just couldn't move with the water so deep." He bemoaned the fact he made little money during the two days of rain. "It was a metre-and-a-half-deep in so many places! It was just too dangerous for me to work," he said.
It was particularly dangerous in four districts in the south and west of the country - Colombo, Galle, Kaluthara and Gampha. Colombo received nearly 10 inches of rain and Galle over seven during the two-day period, according to Sri Lanka's Department of Meteorology.
The Inter Agency Standing Committee (IASC) reported that the government's Disaster Management Centre (DMC) under the direction of Maj-Gen Gamini Hetiarachi is leading efforts to assess, respond to, and mitigate the effects of, the floods. The immediate needs were for equipment to clear canals, water pumps and various non-food items.
Death toll 15
Hetiarachi told IRIN on 6 May: "Fifteen people have lost their lives in the floods and over 121,000 are affected." He said the deaths were due either to drowning, landslides, or electrocution. Seven died in Galle district, three in Colombo, three in Kaluthara and two in Gampaha. Another nine were reported injured.
Homes damaged, destroyed
The flooding, combined at times with high winds, resulted in 280 destroyed homes and 1,266 damaged ones, according to initial assessments by the DMC. Galle district sustained the most destruction with 247 houses destroyed and 813 damaged.
According to the Emergency Operations Centre of the DMC, of those affected or displaced 51,301 are in Colombo district, 40,088 in Gampaha and 17,486 in Galle. Some 16 camps and welfare centres in Colombo District and 14 in Gampha are being used temporarily to house displaced people, according to the DMC.
Hetiarachi said: "The government is currently assessing the situation and allocating money to government agents to provide food and other provisions to those in need." According to the acting director of the National Disaster Relief Service, Aarath Perera, 5 million rupees (US$50,000) are being sent to district authorities to assist flood victims.
UN aid
Hetiarchi said the humanitarian community is helping as well. "The UNDP [United Nations Development Programme] Emergency Fund has provided 100,000 rupees ($1,000) to Kaluthara and 100,000 rupees to Gampha district for the hiring of backhoes to clear canals." He said sandbags were being placed along the Kelani river in Gampha district to keep it from flooding the town of Kelaniya.
Poor drainage
According to the DMC director, and now most news reports, the principal reason for the recent flooding is poor drainage. "The waterways and canals in urban areas are blocked by debris and garbage and not maintained," Hetiarachi said. "And many poor people build their small houses on low-lying areas that quickly get filled with water."
Sri Lanka occasionally experiences damaging floods, most recently in mid-January 2007, when heavy rains in south and central Sri Lanka caused numerous landslides and 18 deaths and temporarily displaced some 30,000 to 40,000 people.
