A tree that was uprooted Thursday night by a windstorm and heavy rains in The Dalles, Ore., is shown Friday, Dec. 15, 2006. About 350,000 homes lost power around Oregon when a storm slammed the state with winds topping 90 mph, downing trees and closing sections of major highways. (AP Photo/The Dalles Chronicle, Mark Gibson)

Storm kills 4, cuts power in Northwest

SEATTLE - Howling windstorms and heavy rains caused at least four deaths, closed bridges and highways and cut power to about 1.5 million homes and businesses in Washington and Oregon, authorities said Friday.

One of the concourses at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport lost power, and an airport spokesman said some flights were canceled.

About 30 flights were scratched at Portland International Airport, a spokesman said, and Amtrak canceled service between Portland and Seattle.

A 41-year-old Seattle woman died Thursday after she became trapped in her basement while it flooded. Neighbors had called for help after they heard screaming.

A 28-year-old man was killed while he slept when the top of a tree snapped off and crashed into his home in a trailer park in McCleary, 18 miles west of Olympia.

Elsewhere in Washington, two people died in traffic accidents involving windblown trees.

In Edmonds, north of Seattle, about 50 residents of an assisted living facility were evacuated after a tree crashed through the third floor, flooding the building, Snohomish County emergency management officials said. No injuries were reported, and residents were sent to other facilities.

In King County, which includes Seattle, drenching rain slowed commuters to a crawl. Colder temperatures moved in Friday as the storm passed and winds calmed, bringing heavy snow to lower elevations.

Some Puget Sound Energy customers won't have their lights back on for days, spokesman Roger Thompson said.

The Evergreen Point floating bridge, which links Seattle and its eastern suburbs, remained closed early Friday and numerous other highways were blocked because of high water or windblown trees. The Hood Canal floating bridge, which links Washington's Kitsap and Olympic peninsulas, and the Tacoma Narrows Bridge were reopened early Friday after being closed Thursday evening because of wind gusts up to 74 mph.

The Oregon Department of Transportation closed three major highways crossing the Cascade Range because of fallen trees or downed power lines, and winds gusted past 90 mph on the Oregon coast.

The National Weather Service said rainfall was expected to be as high as 8 inches on the coast and 5 inches in the Cascade Range, with snow at higher elevations.

Rain drenched Qwest Field in Seattle just before kickoff of the NFL game between the Seahawks and San Francisco 49ers. The rain left standing water on the field, and about 30 minutes before kickoff, a power surge briefly knocked out the large video screens at both ends of the stadium.

Seattle public schools were closed Friday, as were numerous smaller school systems and The Evergreen State College in Olympia.

Landslides in Indonesia destroy mosque, kill 17

JAKARTA, Dec 15 (Reuters) - Landslides in Indonesia's Sumatra island killed 17 people on Friday, most of them worshippers in a mosque, a rescue official said.

Satria Arjuna, chief of the emergency team in the area, said workers were searching for 11 more people missing after the landslides struck two villages in the remote area of western Sumatra.

The official said there had been heavy rain in the mountainous area that had left the ground very unstable.

"I've got information from the emergency team that 17 people died....Most of the victims were praying in a mosque. Some houses were also buried," Arjuna said by telephone, adding some of the missing may be buried in the remains of the mosque.

The nearest town to the landslides is Solok, about 900 km (560 miles) northwest of the capital Jakarta.

The rainy season has just started in parts of Indonesia making landslides more likely, with the risk increased in many areas by clearing of forests.

U.N. seeks $46 mln for Philippines typhoon aid

GENEVA, Dec 15 (Reuters) - The United Nations on Friday asked for $46 million to help hundreds of thousands of people affected by a series of devastating typhoons in the Philippines.

The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said the assistance would be used to help meet urgent needs in areas whose homes, medical facilities and government offices were wrecked by typhoons Durian and Utor.

UNICEF, the U.N. children's agency, said the lives of half a million students in the Philippines were disrupted by the storms, which destroyed up to 9 out of 10 schools in some areas. Textbooks, computers and other supplies were heavily damaged.

Some 100,000 people are in need of food assistance in the wake of the storms, the U.N. World Food Programme said, saying it is providing emergency aid to 50,000 people and the government of the Philippines is supplying the other half.