A man gets his things out of his flooded house in Uthiru, west of Nairobi, following heavy rains that pounded the city in 1999. Devastating floods triggered by unusually heavy seasonal rains have swept through north and coastal Kenya, killing at least 23 and forcing more than 70,000 from their homes, officials said.(AFP/File/Simon Maina)

Killer floods wreak havoc as Kenya hosts UN climate change meet

NAIROBI (AFP) - Devastating floods triggered by unusually heavy seasonal rains have swept through north and coastal Kenya, killing at least 23 and forcing more than 70,000 from their homes, officials said.

Among the dead and displaced are Somali refugees at UN camps in northeast Kenya, where at least two people, a pregnant woman and a young child, drowned and 13,000 already homeless people were left without even scant shelter, they said.

Those fatalities brought to 23 the death toll across Kenya from three weeks of torrential downpours that have ravaged the country and displaced 60,000 Kenyans in addition to 12,600 Somali refugees at the UN's Dadaab complex.

And, with rains continuing, officials warned of further devastation, while delegates meet in Nairobi at a UN conference on climate change that many blame for altering weather patterns and causing deadly drought-flood cycles.

Ironically, at the conference on Monday, the United Nations was presenting a report on harnessing the "massive potential of rainwater harvesting in Africa," which it said could supply more than enough of the continent's needs.

Kenyan emergency workers were meanwhile struggling with the effect of harsh, unharvested rains and floodwater on an impoverished population.

"We have floods across the country and, since it is still raining, we fear the situation will deteroriate," said Abdi Ahmed, the acting disaster response chief at the Kenya Red Cross Society (KRCS).

At the weekend, at least six people, including a schoolgirl, were swept away and drowned by raging waters around the Indian Ocean port of Mombasa and the northeastern town of Garissa, officials said. Two others are missing.

The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) said Monday that two of its three camps at Dadaab, about 470 kilometers (290 miles) northeast of Nairobi, had flooded beginning Friday, compounding the misery of nearly 90,000 Somali refugees.

It said two refugees had drowned and that 12,600 had been left without shelter at Dadaab's Ifo and Dagahaley camps, that it feared for the spread of water-borne diseases and that supply routes had been cut to the facilities.

The deaths and damage are just the latest from the unusually heavy October-to-December "short rains" season, that began to impact late last month.

Since then, at least 60,000 Kenyans -- 50,000 on the coast and 10,000 in the northeast -- have been forced from their homes by flood waters that have washed away crop fields, bridges and roads and destroyed numerous buildings.

"All these people are directly affected or completely cut off and we cannot access them," Ahmed told AFP.

On Saturday, the main road linking Mombasa, about 500 kilometers (300 miles) southeast of Nairobi, to Tanzania was cut off with four bridges washed away, a local official said.

"We are looking for water, shelter and medicine for the affected people, but in the long run we will be required to assist up to 200,000 people here," said Moffat Kangi, the commissioner of Kwale district just south of Mombasa.

The recent floods are not limited to Kenya, which is being hit as it hosts thousands of environmentalists and government delegates at the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) that ends this week.

The onset of rains has compounded problems across the Horn of Africa already brought by a recent killer drought, since parched soil inundating the worst-affected areas is unable to absorb the water, officials said.

In Somalia, floods have killed at least 42 and displaced 10,000 people over the past two weeks, compounding the misery affecting millions in the lawless Horn of Africa nation.

In Ethiopia, flooding from late October rains that burst the banks of several rivers has killed at least 68 people and affected some 280,000 people, according to officials there.

High Winds

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — High winds struck the Oregon Coast Sunday night, with gusts exceeding 80 mph at many spots.
The Tillamook County Sheriff's Office said it had many reports of downed trees and downed power lines. A dispatcher said there have also been at least two reports of overdue hunters.

Weather stations along the Oregon Coast reported sustained winds of 60 mph, with gusts of 102 mph at Cape Blanco; 85 mph on the Yaquina Bay Bridge; 88 mph at Lincoln City; 82 mph at Mount Hebo; and 73 mph at Florence. Wind gusts toppled trees into power lines causing scattered power outages reported from Depoe Bay south.

The storm was fast moving. Sgt. Todd Sarazin of the Newport Police Department said winds were strong early in the evening but died down by 10 p.m.

"It's pretty mellow," he said. "At my briefing I was telling my guys to be ready for anything, but it really wasn't anything."

The storm headed toward the Portland area late Sunday night. Portland General Electric reported that about 20,000 customers were without power at 10:15 p.m., with most of the problems south and west of Portland.

SoCal wildfire burns 290 acres, briefly threatens homes

LAKE ELSINORE, Calif. (AP) — Firefighters were struggling on Monday to tame a wind-driven wildfire that has charred dense brush and trees in the hills east of Los Angeles and briefly threatened hundreds of homes.
Officials expected containment of the blaze, which had burned 290 acres, or almost half a square mile, by Monday evening. The cause was still under investigation.

"It's a very long, skinny fire," said Fire Capt. Julie Hutchinson of the California Department of Forestry. "Right now the wind is our biggest obstacle. We don't need any huge gusts in either direction."

Flames were dangerously close to hundreds of homes Sunday night, prompting a voluntary evacuation. The warnings were lifted by early Monday.

Hutchinson said firefighters using bulldozers were working to dig a line around the fire. Winds were blowing about 7 mph to 10 mph and temperatures that cooled into the 40s overnight helped firefighters get a handle on the blaze.

"The weather is cooperating with us," fire spokeswoman Cheri Peterson said.

The fire in Lake Elsinore, about 75 miles east of Los Angeles, was the latest in a series of major Southern California wildfires in recent months. The fire was 40 miles from the site of last month's arson-sparked blaze that killed five firefighters and destroyed 34 homes.

"We're definitely concerned about it growing," Hutchinson said.

The cause was under investigation.

Lake Elsinore is located about 75 miles east of Los Angeles.