Sunday

Hawaii gets break after days of rain

HONOLULU - Rains that have lashed the islands for days began to move on Thursday, leaving behind pools of water and piles of debris for residents and government workers to contend with.

The rough weather forced officials to cancel an air drop Thursday by a Hawaii National Guard helicopter of food and fuel to some 340 residents of the Kipahulu region on Maui who were cut off from the rest of the island after the Paihi Bridge was closed due to last month's earthquake damage.

The National Weather Service issued flash flood warnings extending into Thursday evening for both Maui and Molokai.

By Thursday afternoon on Oahu, a massive pile of muddy earth, roots, rocks and trees — three to four dozen truckloads worth — were cleared from just outside the Honolulu side of the Pali Highway tunnels that poke through the Koolau Mountains to the windward side of the island.

While no one was hurt in the landslide Wednesday, it blocked both of the town-bound lanes and part of the Kailua-bound side, snarling commuter traffic that night.

Highway officials, however, decided to keep the town-bound lanes closed Thursday because mud was continuing to flow onto the road.

Rainfall near the tunnels had been particularly intense in recent days.

The area received a total of 22 inches of rain over three days, including 8 inches within a 12 hour period, said Maureen Ballard, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Honolulu.

The rains, which began Monday on Kauai, are part of the start of the islands' wet season.

"We do get rain during our wet season, of course. But of course, we don't every year get stuff which produces landslides," Ballard said.

Ethiopia caught in dangerous cycle of drought and floods

ADDIS ABABA (AFP) - Ethiopia, which was hit again by deadly floods this week, is caught in a devastating cycle of drought and heavy rains that threatens the survival of millions of people, experts say.

"Over the years, the Somali region of Ethiopia has suffered from cycles of droughts and floods," the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) said.

According to the WFP, around 1.5 million farmers "require urgent humanitarian assistance as large numbers of livestock died, wells and boreholes dried up, malnutrition rates increased and disease became rampant."

The latest flooding has been caused by a sudden rise in the level of the river Wabe Shebelle, swollen by heavy rains, whose depth had doubled at the end of last week.

Flooding from the river had practically cut off the worst-affected towns of Kelafo and Musthail, 80 and 150 kilometres (50 and 90 miles) from Gode, the capital of the Somali region, humanitarian experts said.

The latest death toll issued by the Ethiopian authorities said 68 people had died in the recent floods and thousands had been made homeless.

The toll included five people taken by crocodiles lurking in the flood waters, said Muktar Mohamed, the flood emergency coordinator for the Disaster Prevention and Preparedness Bureau (DPPA) in Gode.

Another six people had been injured in crocodile attacks, he added.

"The death toll has been climbing, because reports are coming in slowly from the affected places," he said.

Mohamed said that 17,000 hectares of land and 2,000 livestock had been lost in the flooding, which had affected nearly 280,000 people in 94 villages.

"We still don't have a precise figure for displaced people," he added.

The DPPA has begun distributing humanitarian aid of cereals, pulses and vegetable oil, while the WFP has made available 1,374 metric tons of grain from its stocks.

Southeast Ethiopia is still reeling from flash floods in August and September, which left 639 dead and affected over 350,000 people, again chiefly hitting the Somali region.

"One wonders how much an already vulnerable and fragile group of people are expected to bear," said the WFP's representative in Ethiopia, Mohamed Diab.

"At least WFP can ensure that many of those who may have already lost everything have something to eat," he told AFP.

But even this modest goal is hard to achieve by land because roads have been washed away and large tracts of territory are under water and full of crocodiles and snakes.

"As access to the flood-affected area is difficult, dropping food to survivors from aircraft is being considered," the WFP and the DPPA said.

Ethiopia's war-ravaged neighbour and northeast Kenya are also both affected by the flooding.

"Based on the latest flood watch reports, we fear the situation could get worse for the Juba region (in southern Somalia)," Matthew Olins, deputy head of Somalia's UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), told AFP.

Olins said "small-scale damage" was already being recorded in the areas around the Somali capital Mogadishu.

The majority of observers are pessimistic about the situation in the Horn of Africa and see little hope of an end to the heavy floods and droughts that have plagued the region in deadly cycles for decades.

america's Weather

Steady rain was forecast for Washington and Oregon on Sunday, and flood watches and warnings were in effect.

The rain was expected to spill into the Intermountain West. Because temperatures were likely to remain mild, only the peaks of the Cascades were expected to get any snow.

Showers and scattered thunderstorms were forecast for the Southern Plains and Lower Mississippi Valley. Light showers in New England and thunderstorms in Florida were possible, though most of the East Coast was expected to remain dry.

Much of New England was expected to rise only into the 30s and 40s, while the Great Lakes were likely to see temperatures in the 40s and 50s. The Southeast and Plains could rise into the 60s and 70s, while the Southwest could hit the 80s. The Northern Rockies were expected to rise into the 40s and 50s.

Temperatures in the Lower 48 states Saturday ranged from a low of 7 degrees at Browns Valley, Minn., to a high of 91 degrees at Thermal, Calif.

Turk mayor asks for help after floods sweep Batman

ISTANBUL, Nov 4 (Reuters) - The mayor of a town in Turkey's southeast called on Saturday for international aid to recover from flash floods that have killed more than 30 people in the country.

Mayor Huseyin Kalkan told a news conference 11 people had died in Batman where about 300,000 people live.

"Nearly 63,000 of our citizens from 12,600 damaged houses have been victims of the floods and the disaster," he said.

"We urgently need help from our businessmen and international relief institutions."

Some 1,200 rescue workers are in Batman after floodwaters hit the town on Wednesday. Rivers swollen by torrential rains swamped streets and toppled buildings.

Kalkan said some districts were still cut off from the rest of the town. "The government must do something," he said.

The floods were the worst to hit the mainly Kurdish region since 1937.

Beazley, premiers welcome water summit

Three state Labor premiers have welcomed Prime Minister John Howard's snap water crisis summit amid warnings that key Murray-Darling Basin dams could be dry by May.

Mr Howard called the summit, to be held in Canberra on Tuesday, with invitations to the premiers of the Murray River states, NSW, Victoria and South Australia, all of whom promptly signalled acceptance.

Queensland Premier Peter Beattie immediately asked that his state also be represented, urging Mr Howard to hold a special Council of Australian Governments (COAG) meeting to discuss climate change and the impact of the worst drought on record.

Mr Howard called the summit after new data showed flows into the Murray-Darling Basin this year had also been the worst on record, leading to warnings the three dams underpinning the basin's southern irrigated farmlands would run dry within six months.

He said the meeting would discuss what immediate action could be taken.

"The serious water situation in the Murray-Darling Basin requires a collaborative response from both federal and state governments.

"This prolonged drought is having a terrible impact on farming communities across Australia especially in the Murray-Darling Basin, and has inevitable consequences for city dwellers," Mr Howard said in weekly radio address.

"I've therefore called a meeting ... to discuss what action can be taken to provide the best possible outcome at this very difficult time."

Mr Howard's Parliamentary Secretary for Water Malcolm Turnbull, who is expected to play a key role in the summit, said it would focus on ensuring irrigated farmlands and towns did not run out of water.

"By the end of the irrigation season in April or May, the big dams on the river ... will be just about empty," Mr Turnbull told the Nine Network.

Pineapple Express pushes Skokomish past flood stage; more to come

SEATTLE (AP) — Heavy rain Saturday pushed the Skokomish River above flood stage at the small community of Potlatch on the west side of Puget Sound on Hood Canal, the National Weather Service reported.

The rain had stopped by 8 p.m., but more was forecast Sunday night and Monday, and flooding was expected Tuesday on many Western Washington rivers, forecaster Andy Haner said. Flood watches were issued for all those rivers Saturday.

The agency tries to issue flood watches about 36 hours in advance of expected flooding. In this case, Haner said, the watches issued at midday Saturday are intended "to raise people's awareness of 'the big event' coming Sunday and Monday."

Late Saturday, flood warnings were issued for the Snoqualmie River near the falls east of Seattle, and for the Skagit River near Concrete. The weather service urged people not to drive vehicles into flooded areas. "This is the cause of most flood-related deaths in Washington," the agency said.

The weather system, dubbed the "Pineapple Express," is coming in from the southwest — from the tropical regions of the central and western Pacific — and bringing mild temperatures, in the 50s Saturday evening and possibly into the 60s Monday, Haner said.

The incoming storm was expected to bring precipitation of 2 to 4 inches in the lowlands, and of 6 to 10 inches in the mountains, Haner said. Such a deluge could drive many Western Washington rivers above flood stage, a process that usually follows heavy rain by 24 hours, he said — a forecast that could mean lowland flooding on Election Day.

Flood stage on the Skokomish is 16 feet, and the river was at 16.5 feet at 9 p.m. Saturday.

"It should crest by midnight" at 16.6 feet, Haner said. A weather spotter 2 miles north of Potlatch reported a 24-hour total of 3.1 inches at 2 p.m., he said.

The Skokomish was the only river at flood stage Saturday in the region, Haner said.

East of Seattle, the Snoqualmie River was expected to crest early Sunday. Widespread flooding of low-lying roads and pastures was expected between Fall City and the town of Snoqualmie, the agency said.

To the north, 3 inches of rain Saturday at Marblemount was expected to push the Skagit River above more than a foot above flood stage at Concrete early Sunday, affecting roads between Rockport and Sedro-Woolley. The Skagit was expected to crest by mid-morning and subside by Sunday afternoon.

If the rainfall forecast for the next few days occurs — and Haner says there's not much doubt — the Skagit River at Concrete, about 80 miles north of Seattle, is expected to crest at 10 feet above flood stage.

Snoqualmie River flooding could swamp lowland homes in the bedroom communities of Monroe and Carnation, north and east of Seattle. The Snohomish River could cause problems in the town of Snohomish, near Everett about 30 miles north of Seattle.

The Chehalis River basin south of Seattle could also be hit hard, Haner said.

Flood stage for the Stillaguamish River near Arlington, about 60 miles north of Seattle, has been lowered because of a rain-driven mudslide near Oso last winter. Technically flood stage is 13 feet, but a water level of just 8.4 feet could cause problems this season, Haner said.