Earthquake hits Solomon Islands

PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea - A moderate earthquake toppled several houses Sunday in the Solomon Islands near where a quake and tsunami killed 52 people earlier this month, an official said.

The U.S. Geological Survey reported that a magnitude 5.4 quake struck mid-afternoon local time, 25 miles southeast of the region's main town of Gizo and 6 miles beneath the earth's crust. The quake was too small to pose a tsunami risk.

Provincial government member Danny Kennedy said there were reports of houses being toppled on the island of Mono in the western Solomons, but he said Gizo appeared to have suffered little damage. There were no reports of casualties.

"It certainly shook us quite a lot," Kennedy said.

A magnitude 8.1 quake and tsunami on April 2 killed 52 people, including 33 on Gizo island.

Huge Georgia wildfire ignites spot fires

WAYCROSS, Ga. - A few spot fires ignited Saturday afternoon across a highway from a massive wildfire and firefighters struggled to put them out before they could spread in the miles of tinder-dry forest beyond.

Several rural homes near the new fires were being evacuated Saturday evening, Georgia Forestry Commission spokesman Eric Mosley said.

Shifting winds and drought-parched forest and swampland have fueled the growth of the vast fire, which has consumed nearly 100 square miles in southeast Georgia since it ignited April 16.

Firefighters were patrolling a 16-mile stretch of U.S. 1, which links Waycross with Jacksonville, Fla., and set controlled burns to prevent the blaze from spreading into acres of drought-stricken forest beyond the road. The highway remained closed.

“We are still in the throes of a very, very difficult effort and we anticipate this fire burning intensely for at least another week — and maybe another month,” said Buzz Weiss, spokesman for the Georgia Emergency Management Agency.

Weary residents welcomed the shifting wind, which blew the smoke from the towns and into the swampland Saturday morning.

About half the blaze was under control, emergency responders said. A separate smaller blaze ignited near U.S. 301 after a passing train leaked fuel, but Weiss said firefighters have contained all but 10 percent of that fire.

“Right now we just have a bad situation where we have no rain, extremely low humidity and we’re dealing on a day-to-day basis with wind gusts and shifts,” Weiss said. “Those are the real recipes for a fire disaster — and that’s what we’re coping with.”

Midwest storms cause injuries, flip police car

LAPORTE, Ind. - Storms packing winds strong enough to toss a police cruiser over a fence spawned apparent tornadoes that leveled houses and downed power lines in several states.

The storms buffeted parts of Indiana, Tennessee, Illinois and Ohio on Thursday. Tornadoes apparently touched down in Tennessee and Illinois, officials in those states said.

Debris injured at least seven people in the northeastern Tennessee town of New Tazewell. At least six homes were destroyed, and as many as 400 homes — about one in every five homes in Claiborne County — lost power, officials said.

Jason Ellis said his family fled their mobile home when the wind started rocking it back and forth.

“It felt like the top of the house was fixing to come off. I just didn’t want to chance it,” he said.

By Friday morning, electricity was restored to all but about two dozen homes, and roads had already been cleared of fallen limbs, said David Breeding, the county’s deputy emergency management director.

About 100 miles to the southwest, a tornado touched down outside Crossville, Tenn., damaging buildings and peeling the roof off an unoccupied trailer, authorities said. No injuries were reported there.

The National Weather Service sent teams Friday to both areas to confirm tornadoes. Authorities said they expected emergency crews would find more damaged homes and buildings on Friday.

In Plainfield, Ill., a small tornado tore off parts of a nursing home’s roof, flipped over a minivan and damaged several homes but no injuries were reported, authorities said.

In Indiana, a LaPorte County sheriff’s department patrol car was tossed over a 3-foot-high fence, said Sheriff Mike Mollenhauer.

“I don’t think I would have believed it unless I’d seen it,” he said.

In rural Brown County in southwestern Ohio, Donna Young’s front porch was blown about 50 feet from her house, she said.

“It was a nice, railed, country covered porch,” she said. The storm “came from the south and just picked the porch to take out.”

Anti-Americanism: Your questions answered

Tornado near Texas-Mexico border

EAGLE PASS, Texas — At least 10 people were killed, more than 150 were injured and hundreds of buildings were leveled when powerful tornadoes tore through twin border cities in Texas and Mexico.

Rescue and recovery efforts resumed early Wednesday in Eagle Pass, Texas, and Piedras Negras, Mexico after the tornadoes destroyed two empty elementary schools, a church, businesses and homes. Several mobile homes were missing.

The twister picked up one mobile home and slammed it into an elementary school Tuesday night, killing a family of five, Eagle Pass City Councilman Ramsey English Cantu said. Debris from the two buildings was indistinguishable early Wednesday.

Eagle Pass police Officer Ezekiel Navjas said he arrived at the wreckage of Rosita Valley Elementary School Tuesday night and was immediately handed the bloodied body of a 4- to 6-year-old girl.

"It was a whole family, and they were all together, probably like they were huddling," Navjas said. The mobile home held the girl, her parents and two other adult relatives.

Bricks from caved-in walls were scattered around the campus, broken water pipes were spewing water and the metal roof was violently twisted.

"You go by and you see the school areas and you can see where some of the kids' backpacks and stuff are literally outside, and it just hurts to see your community in such a way," Cantu said.

The tornado ripped up an area of about 4 square miles and officials asked the state to declare the region a disaster area, Maverick County Judge Jose Arandas said.

Gov. Rick Perry was scheduled to arrive in the devastated area at about 3 p.m. to survey the damage.

Across the Rio Grande in Piedras Negras, three people were killed, 87 injured and 300 homes were damaged. About 1,000 people sought refuge in shelters. Three years ago, a tornado killed 32 in Piedras Negras.

"It's the worst I've seen," said Eagle Pass resident Ricardo Tijerina, who rode out the storm with his six children in a house near the school. Tijerina, 38, said he watched as the storm destroyed a mobile home across the street.

"It was pretty scary; I saw the trailer when it blew apart," said Tijerina, who said all the mobile home residents survived.

One of those killed died in a house, but few details were available, Cantu said. Another victim who was taken to a San Antonio hospital died Wednesday, according to Maverick County Judge Jose Aranda.

"Numerous homes in that area and businesses, small businesses, what we consider the mom and pop stores that have been in this community for years, a lot of them have been destroyed," Cantu said.

About 150 rescue workers, including Border Patrol and National Guardsmen deployed to help with border security, were searching the Eagle Pass area for survivors. Workers marked the homes with spray-painted "X's" to show they'd been searched. The symbols were similar to those used to mark thousands of New Orleans homes in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

Navjas said he and other rescuers worked as long as they could Tuesday night. He finally went home for a couple hours of sleep after his flashlight went out at about 4 a.m.

"I really didn't want to leave," he said.

Officials said 76 people were taken to Fort Duncan Medical Center, Eagle Pass' only hospital. Four were admitted, four were transferred to hospitals in San Antonio and Del Rio in critical condition, 32 were treated and discharged, the rest were still being evaluated, he said.

"The hospital in the early stages was being overrun, but they had called in additional doctors and were able to take care of business," Eagle Pass Mayor Chad Foster said.

School was canceled Wednesday in Eagle Pass, a border city of about 26,000 about 150 miles southwest of San Antonio.

In North Texas, streets flooded and roofs peeled off homes Tuesday afternoon, followed by another line of severe storms about six hours later. Tornado sirens rang in several counties, and drivers and residents were rescued from flooded cars and suburban neighborhoods.

In Denton County, heavy winds blew the metal roof off a restaurant and damaged several mobile homes and a commercial building under construction, said Roland Asebedo, assistant chief for Denton County's Emergency Services. No injuries were reported.

Fort Worth-based American Airlines had about 200 flights canceled because of weather in Dallas, spokesman Billy Sanez said. The airline also diverted about 80 flights bound for Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport to other airports, including San Antonio.

Ken Capps, vice president of public affairs at DFW airport, said the airport's flight control tower was temporarily evacuated Tuesday night but the airport remained open. Weather canceled 160 of about 950 departing flights Tuesday, and cots were provided for stranded passengers, airport officials said.

Wildfire forces evacuations in Georgia

WAYCROSS, Ga. — Dozens of residents evacuated their homes for several hours early Wednesday after a wildfire jumped a road and spread toward two small communities.

"It looked like it was snowing with all the ash falling. You could feel the heat," said Darryl Cribbs, 44, who packed up his family in Braganza after sheriff's deputies came to their door around 1 a.m. "They said as soon as we left they were going to bring in tanker trucks and try to save the house."

The wildfire spread rapidly Tuesday night and early Wednesday near the Okefenokee Swamp Park, fueled by dense and dry trees and brush.

A 35-mile stretch of U.S. 1 was briefly closed to traffic but reopened when the danger passed, said Tracy Smith, a spokeswoman for the Georgia Emergency Management Agency.

Over the past nine days, wildfires have burned about 67 square miles of forest parched by drought in southeast Georgia and destroyed 18 homes.

More than 1,000 Ware County residents have been forced to evacuate, and 5,000 others have been urged to leave because of health risks associated with the smoke.

A top concern Wednesday morning was a blaze that crossed state Route 177 and was threatening Braganza and Astoria, Smith said. Waycross, a city of about 15,300 resident three miles to the north, was not in immediate danger, though thick smoke blanketed the city, she said.

Firefighters tried to slow the wildfire by igniting underbrush ahead of it.

At a Red Cross shelter in Waycross, Curtis Cowart said his family had been warned twice last week that they might have to evacuate. They had already unpacked valuables they planned to take with them by the time they were told to flee on Wednesday.

"I wasn't going to leave, but I looked and saw the flames and the smoke, and it looked like it was getting closer" said Cowart, 61, whose property near Astoria backs onto the swamp. "If it comes through those woods, I don't know if they can stop it."

About a dozen area residents gathered Tuesday and nervously watched the orange glow from the fire behind the trees.

"I wasn't scared last week, but this is scary," said Kelli Lee, 33, who said she has kept valuables packed for the past week in case she has to evacuate. "I know I won't sleep tonight, that's for sure."

The fire started April 16 when a downed power line ignited tinder-dry trees in Ware County. Officials said Tuesday the blaze was 50% contained by fire breaks plowed along its perimeter.

But winds have kept shifting direction over the past week, threatening to cause pockets of smoldering embers to flare back to life.

Severe Storms Blow Through Pittsburgh, Surrounding Areas

More than a dozen homes and businesses were damaged Monday night after a line of severe storms moved through the city. The National Weather Service issued a tornado warning for Mercer, Venango and Butler counties at about 8 p.m.

Residents told Channel 4 Action News roofs blew off some homes in Transfer, Mercer County. At one fencing business, model sheds were blown over.

As of 10 p.m., 1,000 Penn Power customers didn't have electricity but a spokesman said crews would be working through the night to get it back on.

In O'Hara Township, a tree split down the middle and smashed through a baby's bedroom window, sending shards of glass everywhere.

Authorities said the tree stopped about 15 feet away from where Hayden Strittmatter was sleeping.

They said insulation was hanging over his crib and pieces of drywall were scattered on top of him.

"I had heard thunder and lightening but for about five minutes, there wasn't a sound," said Hayden's father, Jeff Strittmatter. "It was as still as could be. I just dozed off when it was like a bomb was dropped. The next thing I knew, I was out of bed running towards my son's room. My wife beat me to it. He was in the crib, wasn't even crying. He was fine."

The family next door suffered a similar scenario. Part of the same tree fell in to a bedroom there where the home's owner was sleeping. He was not hurt.

Police said they haven't received any reports of injuries.

Torrential rains destroy 1,300 homes in south China

BEIJING, April 25 (Reuters) - Sudden torrential downpours in China's southeastern province of Guangdong destroyed more than 1,300 houses and forced 20,000 people from their homes, the official Xinhua agency reported late on Tuesday.

The rainfall and thunderstorms also delayed flights to the province's largest airport and destroyed thousands of acres of crops, the paper said, adding that nearly 20 cm (7.9 inches) of rain were recorded in some areas over Monday and Tuesday.

A recent national assessment of the likely impact of global warming said the country's south could face more flooding as temperatures rise.

Last year, China's warmest since 1951, the country was struck by an unusually high number of natural disasters, including a series of storms and typhoons.

Every year, 400 million people and 50 million hectares (125 million acres) of farmland are affected by natural disasters in China, with economic losses reaching 1 to 3 percent of gross domestic product.

Tsunami warning lifted after Japan quake

TOKYO - Three strong earthquakes rattled southwestern Japan islands on Friday, but there were no immediate reports of injury or damage.

Japan's Meteorological Agency at one point warned that a small tsunami was possible, but later said no such waves had developed.

The strongest quake, with a preliminary magnitude of 6.7, struck at 10:46 a.m. Two other quakes, each with preliminary magnitudes of 6.2, struck shortly before and then after the larger temblor, the agency said.

All the quakes struck near the island of Miyakojima, 1,130 miles southwest of Tokyo, part of the Ryukyu islands chain that stretches southwest toward Taiwan.

Japan is one of the world's most earthquake-prone countries.

Flooding, power outages still plague Northeast

PORTLAND, Maine - Utility crews cut their way through downed trees Wednesday to restore service to thousands of customers still without power since the huge weekend storm battered the East Coast.

Communities from New Jersey to Maine were still coping with stream flooding caused by the storm, which dumped more than 8 inches of rain in places, along with coastal flooding brought on by astronomical high tides and heavy surf.

Seventeen deaths were blamed on the weather system.

New Hampshire safety officials made plans Wednesday to breach the 19th century Hayden Mill Pond dam at Hollis to relieve the pressure of high water from the storm and avert a failure. A dozen families living near the six-acre reservoir were evacuated Tuesday evening and National Guard troops closed part of a highway as a precaution.

More than 50,000 businesses and residences remained without power Wednesday in Maine, where Central Maine Power Co. was being helped by repair crews from neighboring New Brunswick and Nova Scotia and as far away as Pennsylvania.

'Huge number of trees' down
Utility officials warned that some people might be without power until the end of the week.

“It’s a huge number of trees that are down, so it’s a big job cutting those away,” said CMP spokesman John Carroll. “Plus there are 250 broken poles. That’s an enormous number of poles.”

Utilities in New Hampshire reported nearly 19,000 homes and businesses still had no electricity Wednesday and said some might not be reconnected until the weekend.

In many areas, road damage and fallen trees blocked repair crews’ access, said New Hampshire Electric Cooperative spokesman Seth Wheeler.

“There are 18 different tree crews we’ve hired ... just clearing trees first before the line crews can get in there and do construction,” Wheeler said.

About 1,700 New Jersey residents were in emergency shelters Wednesday because of flooding, up slightly from the day before, as more rivers crested. Rescue crews went house to house by boat in a flooded section of Fairfield asking if residents of any of about three dozen homes needed to be evacuated, said State Police Sgt. Stephen Jones.

“The numbers are fluctuating, actually going down in some places as folks go home, but rising in others as people who had been holding out just give in and go to a shelter,” Jones said.

Dozens of roads closed
More than 80 New Hampshire roads remained closed by high water or damage, said Department of Transportation spokesman Bill Boynton. Most were expected to be reopened soon, but it could take weeks to repair landslide damage to Route 101 in Wilton, he said.

New Hampshire Gov. John Lynch had asked the Federal Emergency Management Agency to start a preliminary damage assessment in all 10 counties to determine the state’s eligibility for federal disaster relief. “Many New Hampshire communities have been overwhelmed by all the flooding,” he said.

Swollen rivers in Massachusetts were receding but waves still crashed over sea walls and flooded coastal roads early Wednesday, authorities said.

Two families were evacuated at their own request from oceanfront homes in Duxbury, Mass., late Tuesday but were able to return Wednesday morning, fire Capt. Skip Chandler said. Their homes had knee-deep water on the ground floor, he said. “Thank goodness it wasn’t worse,” he said.

Most roads had reopened in the suburbs north of New York City, as homeowners in Westchester County piled water-ruined carpets and furniture in heaps outside.

On Fire Island, the barrier island along the south side of New York’s Long Island, some homes were clinging to narrow beaches atop rickety pilings because the storm’s waves had scoured the sand out from beneath them.

“There’s nothing I can do,” said homeowner Bill Raymond, 55. “You’ve got to keep your fingers crossed.”

Colombia volcano erupts, thousands flee

NEIVA, Colombia - Thousands of people were evacuated after a long-dormant volcano erupted late Tuesday and again early Wednesday, provoking avalanches and floods that swept away houses and bridges.

The Nevado del Huila volcano's eruptions were its first on record since Colombia was colonized by the Spanish 500 years ago.

There are about 10,000 people living in the area around the volcano, and about 3,500 had been evacuated, Luz Amanda Pulido, director of the national disaster office, told The Associated Press after flying over the volcano in southwest Colombia.

There were no reports of deaths or injuries.

The eruption sent an avalanche of rocks down the volcano's sides and into the Paez and Simbola rivers, causing them to flood.

"The bridges were swept away, the highway used by the indigenous in the zone was destroyed for various kilometers (miles) and the problem we have now is the lack of a route to deliver goods and medicines to the population," Police Gen. Orlando Paez said.

Experts were not ruling out more eruptions.

"The seismic activity remains light but permanent, and we can't rule out another bigger event in the next hours or days," said Mario Ballesteros, director of the government's Institute for Geology and Mining.

The Nevado del Huila, which is topped with a crown of ice, is Colombia's third-highest peak at 18,484 feet. Located 170 miles southwest of Bogota, it became active again in March with a series of internal rumblings.

In 1985, the town of Armero was wiped from the map and 25,000 people were killed when another volcano, the Nevado del Ruiz, exploded and set off a series of mudslides. It was Colombia's worst natural disaster.

Streets are shown underwater in Danville, W.Va., Sunday, April 15, 2007, after overnight storms flooded many out of their homes in Southern West Virginia. A powerful nor'easter pounded the East with wind and pouring rain Sunday, grounding airlines and threatening to create some of the worst coastal flooding in 14 years. (AP Photo/Bob Bird)


...let me tell you something about living in America...


Storm causes flooding, canceled flights

NEW YORK - A nor'easter battered the East with strong wind and pouring rain Sunday, grounding hundreds of airline flights, downing power lines and threatening severe coastal flooding.

The storm flooded people out of their homes in the middle of the night in West Virginia and trapped others. Some New Jersey shore residents evacuated, and officials in Connecticut urged some residents along the Long Island Sound to do the same. Inland areas from eastern New York to Maine faced a threat of heavy snow.

One person was killed in South Carolina as dozens of mobile homes were destroyed or damaged by wind. The storm system already had been blamed for five deaths on Friday in Kansas and Texas.

Storm warnings and watches were posted all along the East Coast, with coastal flood watches from Maryland to Maine through at least Monday morning.

More than 5.5 inches of rain fell in the New York region Sunday, shattering the record for the date of 1.8 inches set in 1906, according to the National Weather Service. Weather service meteorologist Gary Conte said Sunday night's high tide was likely to bring coastal flooding on Long Island and in parts of New York City.

Connecticut's emergency management commissioner, James Thomas, was expecting most of the problems to come Sunday night with the high tide.

"We are prepared to deliver sandbags, assist with an evacuation, or whatever we need to do," Thomas said. "We're kind of all sitting back, getting prepared and hoping it doesn't get as bad as it has been in different parts of the country."

In New York, flooding stalled traffic along parkways and forced residents in at least one Queens neighborhood to paddle through streets in boats. In the coastal Seagate section of Brooklyn, which suffered major flooding in a December 1992 nor'easter, residents placed sandbags in the streets.

"Everybody remembers that (1992 storm)," resident Jose Serrano (news, bio, voting record) said. "Everybody's home got ruined. Some houses got underwater. It was up to your stomach."

Airlines canceled more than 400 flights at the New York area's three major airports, said Steve Coleman, a spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Kennedy Airport, on the wind-exposed south side of Long Island, had sustained wind of 30 to 35 mph with gusts to 48 mph, Conte said.

Fire Island Ferries suspended service to the island, off the south shore of Long Island, and the Metro-North Railroad suspended service on its Harlem and New Haven lines for several hours because of flooding in the Mott Haven section of the Bronx.

The Coast Guard had warned mariners to head for port because wind up to 55 mph was expected to generate seas up to 20 feet high, Petty Officer Etta Smith said in Boston.

A tornado touched down in the central part of South Carolina, killing one person, seriously injuring four others and cutting a 300-yard swath of destruction in Sumter County, officials said. A second tornado touched down near Lynchburg.

The storm caused flash flooding in the mountains of southern West Virginia, where emergency services personnel rescued nearly two dozen people from homes and cars in Logan and Boone counties early Sunday. Two people were unaccounted for and others were trapped in their homes.

"Our houses sit in the middle of the hill, and it's all around us. I'm surrounded, it's like a lake completely around us," said Samantha Walker, 29, who was visiting her grandmother in Matheny. "We can't get out even if we wanted to get out."

The storm forced the postponement of six major league baseball games Sunday — the most in a single day in a decade — and gave runners in Monday's Boston Marathon something to worry about besides Heartbreak Hill. The race-day forecast called for 3 to 5 inches of rain, start temperatures in the 30s and wind gusts of up to 25 mph.

Heavy rain and thunderstorms extended from Florida up the coast to New England on Sunday. Wind gusted to 71 mph at Charleston, S.C., the weather service said.

Major flooding was forecast in parts of eastern and central Pennsylvania, where some rivers already were above flood state Sunday night.

Thousands of electricity customers lost power in states including New York, Connecticut, New Jersey and North Carolina.

In New Jersey, 16 roadways throughout the state were either partially or fully closed and traffic lights were malfunctioning in some areas, Kris Kolluri, state Transportation Commissioner, said late Sunday afternoon.

Some residents of low-lying areas along the New Jersey shore packed up to leave.

"This is going to be bad," Shaun Rheinheimer said as he moved furniture to higher spots at his house on New Jersey's Cedar Bonnet Island.

Rain dumped 3 inches on eastern Kentucky, where a 50-foot section of highway collapsed near Pikeville, said State Police Sgt. Jamey Kidd. No vehicles were caught by the collapse, he said.

In central Florida, a tornado damaged mobile homes in Dundee but no injuries were reported, police said.

'Once every 20 years' spring storm heads East

ALBANY, N.Y. - A spring storm dropping snow and rain on the central Plains on Friday before speeding toward the East Coast, where it was expected to create a messy weekend. New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer said the state is preparing for heavy rain, snow, high winds and flooding into early next week.

"It is imperative that the public be aware of the potential problems associated with this storm and plan accordingly," Spitzer said of the expected Nor'easter storm.

The state's National Guard is being alerted and prepared for the storm and the possibility of impassible roads and power losses.

The National Weather Service warned that several inches of rain is possible along with winds gusting to 40 mph or harder starting Saturday night.

In the Long Island area, the rain and some snow could meet the spring tide, which would mean a tidal surge of just 1 or 2 feet could result in coastal flooding.

"Even though it may be spring, we need to take this warning seriously and be sure to take appropriate precautions," Spitzer said.

Forecaster Brian Korty said the entire eastern half of the country would feel the brunt of it in the coming days, calling it the kind of storm that happens “once every 20 years.”

Snow, twisters
On Friday, up to 8 inches of snow fell over parts of western Kansas by early afternoon, making driving tougher and forcing some schools to close early. Southeastern Colorado was expecting to end up with no more than 7 inches — far less than the 18 inches initially forecast in some places.

Glum predictions had led Colorado legislators to take Friday off, and United Airlines had canceled 120 flights in Denver, but operations had returned to normal by Friday morning.

As the storm moved east, tornadoes were possible in east Texas, northern Louisiana and southwest Arkansas on Friday and Saturday, the National Weather Service said.

The storm could then bring rain and 25 mph wind to the Carolinas by late Saturday before hitting the Northeast with heavy snow or rain by Sunday, the weather service said. Forecasters also warned of possible flooding.

The storm’s combination of snow, rain and high wind was unusual for this time of year, said Korty.

It follows an earlier system that grounded hundreds of flights in the Midwest on Wednesday before delivering up to a foot fresh snow to northern New England on Friday.

At least seven traffic deaths were blamed on that storm.

At least one Eastern ski resort that had closed for the season changed course and reopened for the weekend — stretching out a season that began late because of a lack of powder.

“Better late than never,” said Chris Lenois, spokesman for Mount Snow in West Dover, Vt., which got just under a foot of new snow. “... There’s no bare spots on the mountain.”

Powerful winds wreak havoc across Los Angeles

LOS ANGELES (AFP) - Powerful winds wreaked havoc across Los Angeles on Thursday, fanning brush fires near one of the city's most exclusive neighborhoods and knocking out power to thousands of homes, officials said.

One multi-million dollar home was completely gutted and three more suffered damage, one severely, after a wind-whipped fire erupted near Beverly Hills, fire officials said, while around 76,000 households suffered power cuts.

The fire tore through around 35 acres (14 hectares) of tinder-dry brush, driven by winds in excess of 50 miles (80 kilometers) per hour, Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman Ron Myers told local broadcaster KCAL 9.

Television footage showed one large house in the upscale Beverly Glen district next to Beverly Hills completely destroyed by the blaze, which broke out at around 1:00 pm local time (2000 GMT).

"We have two homes with serious damage while two more have suffered what looks like roof damage at this stage," Myers said.

Around 200 firefighters had been deployed to tackle the fire, with aerial support from helicopters which dumped water on the flames.

There were no immediate reports of any injuries.

Meanwhile local power companies said thousands of homes had suffered outages because of the winds, which also toppled several large trees across Los Angeles and shrouded the city's downtown skyline in clouds of dust.

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power said around 63,000 customers across the city were without power, while Southern California Edison officials put their figure at around 13,000.

"Most are due to the wind," LADWP spokeswoman Gale Harris said.

Cold snap chills Easter weekend in much of U.S.
Two weeks into spring, it’s feeling a lot like Christmas in many areas

ATLANTA - The Rev. Michael Bingham says the cold snap that greeted much of the country over Easter Weekend could have an effect on the musicians performing in a sunrise service at his church Sunday.

Bingham is pastor of Wesley Memorial United Methodist Church in Columbia, S.C., where lows were predicted to be in the low 20s Sunday. He said the service usually held in a courtyard was moved indoors this years.

“Our musicians are worried about their fingers,” he said.

Two weeks into spring, cold temperatures in much of the country have those celebrating Easter this weekend swapping out frills, bonnets and sandals for coats, scarves and socks.

Baseball fans are huddled in blankets, and instead of spring planting, backyard gardeners are bundling their crops.

Record lows predicted
The National Weather Service was predicting record lows Sunday for parts of the Southeast and Midwest, and an unseasonably cold weekend for much of the Northeast. Snow was forecast in parts of Ohio, Michigan and New England.

In Chicago, kids bundled in winter clothing for an Easter egg hunt at the Glessner House Museum. The high temperature in the city reached just 32 degrees on Saturday — matching a record set in 1936 for lowest high temperature. In early April, the Windy City’s average high is 54 degrees.

“It was freezing,” said Clare Schaecher, the museum’s education director. “All the little kids had boots on and some of them were trying to wear their spring dresses. It was awful.”

In Morrison, Colo., officials were forced to cancel an annual sunrise service scheduled for Sunday at the Red Rocks Amphitheater because seats and stairways were covered in ice.

In Washington, D.C., visitors to the nation’s capital awoke Saturday to see cherry blossoms coated with snow. Snow also fell in metro Atlanta Friday night, and even in parts of West Texas and the Texas Panhandle.

Heavier snow in Ohio postponed Saturday’s doubleheader between the Cleveland Indians and Seattle Mariners. The doubleheader had been scheduled because Friday’s home opener in Cleveland was postponed.

In Nashville, Tenn., a forecast low of 22 degrees Sunday would beat the current record set on March 24, 1940, when the morning temperature was 24 degrees.

“We’re going to be in record territory, for sure,” said Jim Moser, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Nashville.

Concern over impact on crops
Farmers were worried about the impact the weather could have on crops. Blueberries could be particularly affected, said Stanley Scarborough, production manager of Sunnyridge Farms, which has fields in Baxley and Homerville, Ga.

Scarborough said the majority of the state’s blueberry crop, a variety called rabbit-eye, is normally harvested around June 1. This year, the bushes bloomed early because of a wave of warm temperatures last week. Scarborough the blueberries are not able to withstand freezing temperatures.

“At 26 or 27 degrees, you would probably lose half of the Georgia crop,” valued at about $20 million to $25 million dollars, Scarborough said.

In Alabama, growers scrambled to protect early blooming peach orchards. State Agriculture Commissioner Ron Sparks said if temperatures stay at 28 to 29 degrees for two hours, there could be “very severe” damage to the crop.

“If we stay there for four hours, we could possibly lose the peach crop,” he said.

Disasters in central Asia

KABUL, Afghanistan - Avalanches and floods triggered by heavy rains and spring snow melt have killed about 150 people in recent days in the mountains of central Asia, officials said Monday.

In Afghanistan, the death toll reached 88 on Monday and officials said more than half of the country's provinces had flooded, said the Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development.

The government has distributed tents, blankets and sandbags to people, but aid agencies were still trying to reach an estimated 20,000 to 25,000 people in remote areas, said Aleem Siddique, spokesman for the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan.

Meanwhile, flooding and avalanches have killed more than 50 people in the past 10 days in northwestern Pakistan, near the border with Afghanistan. The toll includes 38 people who died in weekend avalanches, some of whose bodies were found Monday in the rubble of demolished homes in a remote village, police said.

And in Tajikistan, a woman and her seven children between the ages of 5 and 20 were killed Sunday by an avalanche that swallowed their home, officials said.

The destruction has been most widespread in Afghanistan, where residents say this year's spring rains are heavier than they have seen in years.

The once trickling Kabul river breached its embankments early Monday, destroying 170 homes in the capital, Kabul, Siddique said. Families were evacuated and no casualties were immediately reported.

In central Bamiyan province, 60 homes were reportedly destroyed by an avalanche Sunday night, Siddique said. The area is difficult to access because of flooding, which has reportedly killed about 28 people, he said.

In Panjshir, north of Kabul, six districts have suffered avalanches and floods, killing nine people and destroying 40 homes.

Heavy rains and snow have been lashing Pakistan's rugged Chitral district, about 170 miles northwest of the capital Islamabad, since late last week. In some areas, 6 feet of snow has fallen in the past several days, officials said.

One of the weekend avalanches in Pakistan hit 26 homes in the village of Wasij, killing at least 34 people, police official Ali Khan said Monday. Another avalanche hit a home in the village of Postaki, killing four, he said. And 11 people were missing when an avalanche hit Olas village on Sunday. Police had no information on their fates.

Military helicopters were expected to bring medicine, food and blankets to victims after bad weather prevented previous flights to the remote area, said police official Ijaz Ahmed.

Humanitarian crisis threatens tsunami-hit Solomons

HONIARA, April 3 (Reuters) - A humanitarian crisis triggered by a huge earthquake and tsunami threatened thousands of homeless people in the Solomon Islands on Tuesday as aid began to trickle in and powerful aftershocks rattled the country.

After the first disaster teams reached hard-hit Western and Choiseul Provinces, Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare said aerial patrols had reported "massive and widespread" destruction from Monday's magnitude 8.0 quake and tsunami.

Aerial pictures showed flattened homes and twisted iron roofs on the ground all along the remote coastline as people wandered seemingly aimlessly on roads clogged by debris and boats hurled ashore by powerful waves up to 10 metres high.

The first priority of rescue teams, Sogavare said, would be to restore communications with affected areas amid official estimates that 22 people had been killed and 5,409 left homeless. The death toll was expected to rise.

"We will be needing a mobile hospital facility and I think Australia and New Zealand have kindly offered to come forward on that," Sogavare said.

Australian aid agency Caritas said infection would set in quickly among those injured, with antibiotics in short supply and doctors currently tending to survivors at a hilltop aid station near Gizo, the worst affected town.

"Many water tanks have been damaged, and we also have a problem with food supplies. The gardens have been inundated, so there is a problem with fresh food," Caritas spokeswoman Liz Stone told Australian radio.

Thousands of villagers remained on high ground as more than 27 aftershocks, including a magnitude 6.2 quake, shook the region and scientists warned more tsunamis could follow.

With a state of emergency in force, a police patrol boat carrying food and emergency supplies arrived in Gizo, where schools and a hospital were damaged, and dozens of houses sucked into the sea. At least 13 villages were feared destroyed.

"There are vast tracts of land, many, many islands and very complicated terrain," Deputy Solomons Police Commissioner Peter Marshall told reporters.

The region around Gizo is popular with international tourists and scuba divers for its corals. A New Zealand resident was among the dead, New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark said.

AID ATTEMPT

Gizo dive shop owner Danny Kennedy said workers were trying to clear roads and the local airport of debris to allow military aid flights to bring in tents, medical supplies and food.

"It's basically just houses stacked on top of one another, roofing iron. It's still quite a mess," he told Reuters. "One village on Simbo was completely wiped out. The entire village is gone and where the people are we have no idea."

Kennedy said villagers were too traumatised to search homes to find who might be buried under the rubble of their houses and villages, or to use traditional canoes to assess damage.

Most people in the low-lying town of 20,000 rely on fishing or logging for jobs. Many homes were built of timber and bamboo, making them particularly vulnerable.

The majority of Solomon Islanders live on subsistence agriculture with less than a quarter of the population having paid jobs. In 2006 the country had a GDP of $322 million.

Gizo is the second largest town and is surrounded by smaller islands, including Kennedy Island, named after late U.S. president John F. Kennedy, who swam to safety there after his navy patrol boat was rammed in World War Two.

The Solomons Red Cross said about 2,000 Gizo residents were homeless, while 500 houses might have been damaged or destroyed. Other estimates said more than 900 homes had been levelled.

A bishop and three worshippers were killed when the tsunami struck the island of Simbo during a church ordination, the United Church said.

In neigbouring Papua New Guinea, authorities were investigating reports that a tsunami had swept away a family of five in the PNG province of Milne Bay.

The quake struck 350 km (220 miles) northwest of Honiara and sparked a tsunami alert around the Pacific.

Government and Red Cross disaster teams are taking tents and supplies to the affected area. Australia has offered A$2 million ($1.6 million) in aid, while New Zealand offered NZ$500,000 ($360,000) and sent an air force plane laden with supplies, including water containers, blankets, tarpaulins, food and lamps.

The United Nations said it had a full Disaster Assessment and Coordination team on standby for deployment to the Solomons.

The Solomon Islands lie on the so-called Pacific "Ring of Fire" where volcanic activity and earthquakes are fairly common.

Successive cyclones bring Madagascar to its knees

JOHANNESBURG, 3 April 2007 (IRIN) - As the sixth mayor cyclone to hit Madagascar this season tears across the northeast of the impoverished Indian ocean island, a relentless succession of natural disasters has left nearly half a million people in desperate need of humanitarian assistance.

Tropical cyclone Jaya made landfall on Madagascar's northeastern coast today on a projected trajectory that will see it rage through areas already devastated by cyclone Indlala just over two weeks ago.

"This is the worst cyclone season in the recorded history of the country," Dusan Zupka, the Senior Emergency Coordination Officer assigned to Madagascar by the United Nations (UN) Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Geneva, told IRIN.

According to the latest UN situation report, almost 130,000 people were "directly affected by cyclone Indlala" and "at least 88 people were killed and 30 disappeared, with about 30,000 left homeless or deprived of all their belongings."

Natural disasters have been tormenting the island since the end of last year; Indlala followed in the wake of five destructive cyclones and unprecedented flooding. "Since December 2006, approximately 450,000 people have become the victims of natural disasters all over Madagascar," said a UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) statement released today.

"If we cannot speak of a tsunami here in Madagascar, we can at least say that the affects of the natural disasters are somewhat similar to that in the aftermath of the tsunami," said Bruno Maes, the UNICEF Representative in Madagascar.

"Considering the low level of human development [in Madagascar], the consequences are huge," Zupka said. Madagascar already faces serious challenges: More than 85 percent of its 19.1 million people live on less than US$2 a day, according to the 2006 United Nations Human Development report, and food insecurity and malnutrition are chronic, particularly in the drought-prone south.

"Due to the flooding, tens of thousands of hectares of rice, the basic food source for the Malagasy, have also been destroyed," the UNICEF statement said. "With the increased food insecurity and shortage, there is the risk of increased malnutrition."

Access to affected areas is a major obstacle to the delivery of humanitarian assistance, and although assessments are underway, immediate needs are critical.

Communication infrastructure, roads, schools and health centres have been severely damaged; provision of food, potable water, shelter, medicines, sanitation facilities, dealing with waterborne diseases and finding alternative means of transportation - like helicopters - until roads are fixed, are essential.

Officials have warned that in-country supplies are drained. "We are overstretched in terms of human capacity and financial resources," Zupka said, adding that international donors had been generous and that "all UN agencies have boosted capacity [in Madagascar].

"Some replenishment has already come from the international community: "contributions so far in response to the cyclones/floods amount to ARIARY 1.5 billion (US$7.5 million)," the UN report noted.

Zupka expressed concern over the lack of attention the emergency in Madagascar had received in the international media, considering the extent of the multiple disasters and the vulnerability of the island and its people. "It is striking that so little attention is being paid to a crisis that affects so many that are already vulnerable because of poverty," he commented.

With the cyclone season continuing until the end of April or early May, expectations are that Jaya will not be the last disaster to strike the island.

Tsunami hits South Pacific's Solomons

HONIARA, Solomon Islands - A bone-rattling undersea earthquake sparked a tsunami that sent 10-foot-high waves crashing into parts of the Solomon Islands on Monday, wiping out one village and killing at least 13 people. The death toll was expected to rise.

Large waves struck the western town of Gizo, inundating buildings and causing widespread destruction within five minutes of the earthquake.

"There wasn't any warning — the warning was the earth tremors," Alex Lokopio, the premier of the Solomon's Western Province, told New Zealand's National Radio. "It shook us very, very strongly and we were frightened, and all of a sudden the sea was rising up."

Despite initial regionwide warnings, there was no repeat of the massive 2004 tsunami, when a magnitude 9 quake sent massive waves slamming into the coastlines of a dozen countries around the Indian Ocean's rim, killing or leaving missing about 230,000 people.

Julian Makaa, spokesman for the Solomons National Disaster Management Office, said numerous villages in the country's remote west were reporting people being swept away as waves plowed through their communities.

Reports remained sketchy because communications were reduced in many cases to scratchy two-way radio lines. Emergency officials have yet to be able to reach the area hit by the tsunami and communications with the area is limited.

Alfred Maesulia, the information director in Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare's office, said late Monday that 13 people had been killed and an unknown number were still missing.

"Some people were seen floating on the sea during the big waves but it was very difficult to go near them," Maesulia told The Associated Press. "The number at the moment is 13. It's possible that number will increase, maybe double up or even more."

Lokopio said he witnessed a large wave crashing into the island.

"I saw the wave ... all of a sudden the water was just rising up and moved toward the island and hit all the houses on the coastal area, and all of their property was washed away to the open sea," he said.

Julian McLeod of the Solomon Islands National Disaster Management Office said there were unconfirmed reports that two villages in the country's far west were flooded.

National police spokesman Mick Spinks said "our biggest problem is communications, because most of the high frequency radio system there was submerged."

Gizo resident Judith Kennedy said water "right up to your head" swept through the town.

"All the houses near the sea were flattened," she told The Associated Press by telephone. "The downtown area is a very big mess from the tsunami and the earthquake," she added. "A lot of houses have collapsed. The whole town is still shaking" from aftershocks.

The
U.S. Geological Survey said the quake measured magnitude-8.0 and struck at 7:39 a.m. about 6 miles beneath the sea floor, 217 miles northwest of the capital, Honiara.

The Pacific region from Australia to Hawaii went on high alert for several hours after the quake struck between the islands of Bougainville and New Georgia.

Gizo, a regional center, is just 25 miles from the earthquake's epicenter.

Another witness in the town, dive shop owner Danny Kennedy, Judith's father, estimated the height of the wave at 10 feet.

"I'm driving down the street — there are boats in the middle of the road, buildings have completely collapsed and fallen down," he said in a telephone interview.

"We're just trying to mobilize water and food, and shelter for people at the moment because ... in the town alone there's going to be between 2,000-3,000 homeless. It's not a very good scene at the moment."

Maesulia said deaths and widespread destruction was also reported on Simbo, Choiseul and Ranunga islands near Gizo.

"There are reports that some villages were completely washed away," he said. "Sasamungga village is quite a big village ... it was reported that 300 houses were completely destroyed in that village alone."

Harry Wickham, who owns a waterfront hotel in Gizo, said the damage was widespread.

"The waves came up probably about 10 feet and swept through town," he told Australia's Nine Network television by telephone. "There's a lot of water damage and a lot of debris floating around," he added.

"Ten feet of water washing through town — you can imagine what damage it has done here."

A town in the west, Munda, was believed to be badly damaged, officials and the Solomon Islands Broadcasting Corp. said, but details were not confirmed.

Solomon Islands deputy police commissioner Peter Marshall said an airplane was to fly over the devastated areas later Monday to assess damage. He said a national state of emergency has been declared.

The Hawaii-based Pacific
Tsunami Warning Center reported the quake at magnitude 8.1, and said a temblor of that strength could cause a destructive tsunami and issued a warning bulletin for the Solomon Islands and neighboring Papua New Guinea. The alert was later lifted, and no reports of a wider tsunami or damage elsewhere emerged.

Australian officials closed beaches anyway along the length of the country's east coast, from near the Great Barrier Reef in the north to Sydney and it's famous Bondi beach in the south. Ferry services in the city were canceled.

It ordered a lower-level "tsunami watch" for other places, including most South Pacific countries, but later canceled the alert. The center said a 6-inch wave had been reported in Honiara.

Police Sgt. Godfrey Abiah said in Honiara that police in Gizo had received warning about a possible tsunami and were helping people leave the town for higher ground when the wave hit.

"We have lost radio contact with the two police stations down there and we're not getting any clear picture from down there," he told the AP by telephone.

A spokesman for Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare, Deli Oso, said the quake was felt in Honiara but there were no reports of any damage.

The Solomon Islands is a poverty-wracked archipelago of more than 200 islands northeast of Australia, with a population of about 552,000 people, that lies on the Pacific Basin's so-called "Ring of Fire," an arc of volcanos and fault lines where quakes frequently happen.

More damaging storms hit Texas

DALLAS - Thunderstorms hammered parts of Texas early Saturday, blacking out thousands of customers and spinning out tornadoes.

The same group of storms sent a twister through a small town west of Waco late Friday and caused flooding that forced some 40 people from their homes.

The violent weather had largely eased by Saturday afternoon and the bulk of the storms had moved into Louisiana and Arkansas.

One tornado struck early Saturday in Lavaca County, which is between Houston and San Antonio, destroying a mobile home and sending its four residents to a hospital, said sheriff's dispatcher Gina Dvorka. A hospital spokeswoman said the residents were in stable condition. Other mobile homes and outbuildings in the area were damaged, Dvorka said.

About 66,000 Centerpoint Energy customers lost power early Saturday in the Houston area. Texas-New Mexico Power, an electricity distributor for several retailers, reported scattered outages throughout the Gulf Coast region, with the biggest briefly affecting 18,000 customers in Alvin, southeast of Houston.

The thunderstorms delayed the start of Saturday's third round of the Houston Open golf tournament.

Late Friday, tornadoes hit two communities near Waco and in Lavaca County, and straight-line wind or a tornado tore through a residential area of Wylie.

"We're lucky," Kim Ray, an administrative assistant for the McGregor Police Department, said Saturday. A tornado hit the small town west of Waco on Friday, causing extensive damage, but no injuries were reported.

About 40 people had to be evacuated from their homes in Haltom City, just north of Fort Worth, because of flooding on Big Fossil Creek.

Some Haltom City rescuers had to be rescued themselves. Three of them were trying to reached a handicapped woman when strong current swamped their boat and they had to cling to trees, said Deputy Chief Wes Rhodes. A backup team sent to their aid had to climb on top of cars, and finally teams from Fort Worth and Hurst came in with hovercraft and rescued the rescuers, he said.

Lancaster, in southern Dallas County, recorded 10 inches of rain over a two-to-three day period, the weather service said.

First sandstorm of year hits northern China

BEIJING (AFP) - Northern China was blanketed in dust on Saturday as the first sandstorm of the year struck the region, including the capital Beijing, state media reported, citing the national weather service.

Visibility was low in the capital due to the storm, but meteorologists said the sand was likely to blow out of town by nightfall due to strong winds, the Xinhua news agency reported.

The mild storm was caused by a cyclone which developed over Mongolia and then moved eastward toward parts of Inner Mongolia and northern Hebei province, said Sun Jun of the China Meteorological Administration, quoted by Xinhua.

Authorities urged residents to stay indoors and cover up if venturing outside to protect themselves from the floating dust.

Other sandstorms are in the forecast for Gansu, Liaoning, Ningxia and Shaanxi provinces, along with Inner Mongolia and the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, meteorologists said.

Northern China suffered from more than a dozen dust storms last year which were attributed to desertification in China's northwestern regions, including Qinghai province. A similar number has been predicted for this year.

China has around 1.74 million square kilometers (696,000 square miles) of desertified land, or 18 percent of its total land area.

Despite the sandstorms, the Chinese government has insisted that it will intensify its efforts to clean the air and prepare for the 2008 Olympics by planting broad belts of trees around the capital.