Pope offers prayers to flood victims (AP)

MILAN – Pope Benedict XVI called Genoa's cardinal on Saturday to express his solidarity with the people of the port city where torrential floods have killed at least six people.

A state of alarm was in effect in several areas of Italy's western coastal region of Liguria, a day after rains lashed it and Genoa, causing flash floods that broke the banks of at least two rivers. Four women and two children were killed.

The pope shared his "prayers for the victims, and all the people hit by the disaster," in a telephone call to Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, the news agency ANSA reported.

Bagnasco visited the quarter hardest hit by the foods, telling residents: "The pain is great, but now it is time to roll up the sleeves."

Earlier, Premier Silvio Berlusconi blamed improper construction for preventing proper runoff for the rapid devastation.

"It is evident that there was construction where there shouldn't have been, but perhaps there can be interventions to prevent a repeat of these disasters," Berlusconi said in a statement. "It is terrible to watch helplessly on TV the drama in Genoa, that has involved so many people."

Genoa's mayor, Marta Vicenzi, has been criticized for allowing schools to be open on Friday. An 18-year-old girl died with her brother when she went to pick him up from school for her mother, who was at work, according to Italian news reports.

Vicenzi defended her decision in an interview with the Rome daily La Repubblica, saying she did not want to create chaos and that open schools gave parents the possibility to identify shelter.

Another round of flooding in the Cinque Terre region of Liguria and neighboring Tuscany left at least nine dead in late October.

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Flood gate in Thai capital focus of fear, rivalry (Reuters)

BANGKOK (Reuters) – Authorities in the Thai capital repaired a damaged flood gate on Wednesday that has become the focus of anger, fear and rivalry between arms of government battling the country's worst floods in decades.

The central government led by Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, sister of the ousted populist premier Thaksin Shinawatra, is at odds with the city government dominated by the main opposition and former ruling Democrat party.

The floods that have killed 427 people since July are the first big test for Yingluck, who came to power in a July poll many Thais hoped would heal divisions that last year brought violent clashes in Southeast Asia's second biggest economy.

Inner Bangkok, protected by a network of dikes and sandbag walls, survived peak tides at the weekend and is mostly dry.

But huge amounts of water are bottled up to the north, west and east of the city, and new areas are being flooded daily as the water tries to find its way out to sea to the south.

Anger is seething in flooded communities on the wrong side of inner Bangkok's flood barricades.

Residents of the northeastern Bangkok suburb of Sam Wa took matters into their own hands this week and hacked away at the side of a canal flood gate, aiming to let the water flow out of their area toward the city center.

Yingluck ordered the gate opened in the face of the residents' demands. The Bangkok government objected on the grounds that the flow could endanger the city center.

But the city had to comply with Yingluck's order to open the gate by a meter (three feet), leading to fear among inner city residents that the disaster they thought they had dodged was looming again.

On Wednesday, city officials and workers went to the Sam Wa flood gate to repair the damage and limit the amount of water flowing through.

"We are here doing the repair work and the police are protecting us," said city administration spokesman Jate Sopitpongstorn.

"They have to accept it," he said of the neighborhood's residents. Several hundred policemen were on hand and there were no protests.

City governor Sukhumbhand Paribatra, watching workmen with heavy machinery fix the gate, played down the political clash and said everyone had to cooperate.

But, referring to the central government's change of heart and order to open the gate, he said everyone should stick to decisions.

"COMPLICATED SYSTEM"

The floods began in July, at the beginning of a particularly heavy rainy season.

Economic growth has been hit and investor confidence shaken as the water swamped industrial estates in the central Chao Phraya river basin, disrupting global supply lines for auto and computer parts.

Water is also approaching central Bangkok from the northern Don Muang district, where the city's domestic airport has been flooded and where one resident said the water had risen 5 cm (two inches) in his house on Wednesday.

City deputy governor Theerachon Manomaipaiboon said workers were building a wall of giant sandbags to try to stop the flow toward the city center from the north.

The wall is expected to be finished in three days but the flood is difficult to predict as it makes its way through the city's suburbs and a poorly maintained and often partly built-over network of canals and tunnels.

"We have a very complicated system. Water in one area can appear 20 km (12 miles) away," Theerachon told Reuters.

Bangkok's 12 million people account for 41 percent of Thailand's gross domestic product and neither the central government nor the city administration wants to be seen to be responsible for an inner city deluge.

Both sides will claim victory if the center can be saved.

But misery in outlying areas, especially north and west Bangkok, and provinces to the north will take the gloss off any success in the inner city, especially given a perception those areas have been sacrificed to save the well-to-do city-center.

Thonburi, on the west bank of the Chao Phraya, opposite central Bangkok's glittering Grand Palace and Chinatown, is mostly swamped with water chest-deep in places. It could be flooded for weeks, experts say.

To the north, Pathum Thani and Ayutthaya provinces have been largely inundated for weeks, along with seven industrial estates that have sprung up over recent decades on what used to be the central plain's rice fields.

Thailand is the second-largest exporter of computer hard drives and global prices are rising because of a flood-related shortage of major components used in personal computers.

Thailand is also Southeast Asia's main auto-parts maker and Japan's Honda Motor Co said car production could be difficult in the second half of its business year ending in March. Its Ayutthaya plant has suspended work indefinitely.

"The 'Motown' of Asia has become 'Waterworld' overnight," the Nation newspaper said in an editorial, referring to Thailand's position in the motor industry.

(Editing by Paul Tait)

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Gas boom means little space for Pa. flood victims (AP)

TUNKHANNOCK, Pa. – Pennsylvania residents who lost their homes to Tropical Storm Lee more than three weeks ago are having a tough time finding affordable housing, or any housing at all, because workers in the area's natural gas drilling boom have filled nearly every room.

Last month's record flooding has worsened a housing crunch in north central and northeastern Pennsylvania, where a surge in drilling over the past few years has led to housing shortages and skyrocketing rents. Flood victims say that available units are few, and federal disaster assistance doesn't come close to paying the rent on the scattered vacancies that are left.

Kim Eastwood, whose home was severely damaged in the flood, has been staying with her son, daughter and elderly mother in a Red Cross shelter in a high school gymnasium while she tries to find a place for them to live.

It hasn't been easy — not shelter life with its cold showers and hard cots, nor her quest for an apartment or house. "The couple we saw are way too expensive," said Eastwood, 35, of Mehoopany.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency says it will provide temporary trailers to residents who qualify — the first batch of about 250 trailers has been approved, and they are being rolled out in the coming days and weeks — but that process takes time. In the meantime, flooded-out residents are on a difficult and sometimes fruitless search for housing.

"They can't find any place to go because there is no place to go," said Brian Wrightson, emergency services director for 10 American Red Cross chapters in northeastern Pennsylvania. "They don't want to uproot their children from the schools and leave their communities and it's become an issue."

Storms that wreaked havoc on much of the Northeast last month caused historic flooding of the Susquehanna River and small streams and creeks in Pennsylvania, damaging or destroying many thousands of homes. Statewide, more than 57,000 victims of the remnants of Tropical Storm Lee and Hurricane Irene have registered for federal disaster aid, with about $75 million distributed to date, most of that as rental assistance.

State officials have set up a website, http://www.pahousingsearch.com, to help flood victims find houses and apartments. But in this region of the Marcellus Shale, a rock formation believed to hold the nation's largest reservoir of natural gas, much of the housing stock is clearly geared toward gas-industry workers.

"The rental rates are severely inflated," said Kim Wheeler, a state Department of Community and Economic Development staffer who has been working to secure housing for flood victims in heavily drilled Lycoming County.

In Bradford County, the center of the Marcellus industry, three-bedroom homes are listed for $1,200 to $1,700 per month, far above what a flood victim can be expected to receive from FEMA. That's because rental assistance is based on what the government calculates as fair-market rent for the area — and the fair-market rent for a three-bedroom in Bradford County is only $704.

The supply is grossly inadequate, too. In hard-hit Wyoming County, where Eastwood and 13 others have been sheltering in the gymnasium of Tunkhannock High School, the state website lists only two properties for rent.

Gene Dziak, Wyoming County's emergency management coordinator, said FEMA trailers will be needed to help meet demand.

"To find an apartment within Wyoming County is virtually impossible," he said. "We're kind of waiting for our temporary housing situation to be squared away and for FEMA to step in and help. That's in the very near future, we hope."

As of Friday, FEMA had identified 2,721 disaster relief applicants statewide that qualify for trailers, or "temporary housing units" in FEMA parlance. Of those, the agency had managed to contact more than 1,800 applicants and confirmed 249 of them for the housing units, which come fully furnished with a kitchen, two bedrooms and a bathroom.

"We are very aware there's a shortage of rental resources in the state, and we are addressing it," said FEMA spokesman Michael Sweet.

High rents and low supply aren't the only challenges confronting flood victims in the Marcellus Shale. Even for more reasonably price units, landlords often balk at signing leases with terms under a year, or they don't accept pets, or there's some other reason it's not a good fit, Wheeler said.

A majority of the six dozen families who have come to Wheeler for help are still looking.

"Very few of (the landlords) are really doing this (to provide) true assistance to the flood victims. They're a business and they want someone in there who they don't have to worry about for a while," Wheeler said. "It's not an easy or pretty picture."

At the Red Cross shelter in Tunkhannock where 14 people remained late last week, caseworkers have proposed splitting up the Eastwood family and moving them to Carbondale, an hour's drive to the east. Eastwood is resisting. "We're not moving to Carbondale. I have kids in school, my mom is older and her doctor's here," she said.

So they remain at the shelter, using $600 of their $1,700 in FEMA rental assistance on a pair of two-night stays at a hotel — a small taste of normalcy.

Another family staying at the shelter plans to move to Georgia. Christy Fowler, 43, a Georgia native who lived in Mehoopany with her husband and three children, said the family had talked about moving south for a while. The flood that wrecked the first floor of their home made it an easy call — there's nowhere else in the area they can afford.

Private rentals and FEMA trailers will end up housing only a portion of the victims of last month's flood. Most displaced residents have moved in with high-and-dry family members.

That has made for some very cramped quarters.

Lori Chilson, 40, has seven extra people living in her house in Laporte, Sullivan County, all of them from her husband's side of the family. Her husband, a contractor, installed a second full bathroom to accommodate the influx, especially his mother, who's on oxygen and needed a bathroom near her sleeping quarters.

"We had to do what we had to do," Chilson said. "It's been hard, but everyone's adjusting. It's working well so far."

With expenses mounting, especially for heating oil, Chilson has inquired about getting federal disaster assistance but was told it's only for flood victims.

"They said we're not flood victims," she said, "but we kind of are."

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Philippine flood waters start to recede (Reuters)

MANILA (Reuters) – Rescue helicopters and boats distributed food, water and medicine to thousands of Filipinos marooned in flooded towns north of the capital on Monday and authorities said water levels were starting to recede.

Wide areas of rice-producing Bulacan and Pampanga provinces have been submerged since late last week after the Philippines was hit by two typhoons. A third storm may develop this week.

Typhoons Nesat and Nalgae killed nearly 60 people, with 36 still missing, and damaged about 9 billion pesos worth of crops and infrastructure on the main island of Luzon, the national disaster agency said on Monday.

Josefina Timoteo, head of the civil defense office in the central Luzon region, said water levels has started to recede in some areas in Bulacan, allowing delivery of relief goods to isolated coastal areas.

"I was told the water level has gone down by one foot since Sunday morning," Timoteo told reporters. "As long as there's no new typhoon and more rains, it will normalize in about a week."

Government engineers were trying to clear landslides in the north to allow delivery of relief goods, and the restoration of electricity and telephone services.

Weather forecasters are now watching another lower pressure area in the Pacific because it might develop into a new typhoon and hit the same areas.

(Reporting By Manny Mogato; Editing by John Mair)

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Northeast turns to flood recovery after Lee (AP)

By MARK SCOLFORO and MICHAEL RUBINKAM, Associated Press Mark Scolforo And Michael Rubinkam, Associated Press – Mon Sep 12, 6:59 pm ET

HARRISBURG, Pa. – Recovery efforts in the aftermath of flooding from Tropical Storm Lee focused Monday on reopening roads and bridges, cleaning the grimy layer of mud left by receding waters and tallying up the millions of dollars in damage wrought by days of drenching rains last week.

For people in riverside towns prone to flooding, it felt familiar.

"The long haul now will be the money thing, the estimating, the recording, getting estimates on different things," said Mayor Norm Ball of Tunkhannock, a northeastern Pennsylvania town where parts of the business district were inundated by high waters from the Susquehanna River and tributaries. "It's quite a process — I've dealt with it before."

In Pennsylvania, about 1,100 customers were still without power, more than 200 roads remained closed and 18 state and local bridges had damage, with another 64 on a precautionary list, emergency officials said Monday. The state was establishing a joint task force to coordinate recovery efforts, with disaster response centers to be located in affected areas.

The tentative statewide death toll dropped from 13 to 11, a change that the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency could not immediately explain. The total figure may be revised again as death certificates are issued.

Authorities pulled the body of a Manheim man from Chiques Creek in Lancaster County on Sunday evening, the Intelligencer Journal/Lancaster New Era reported. The man was walking through flood waters Thursday when the current knocked him over, and he was swept away after holding on to a utility pole for about 20 minutes, the newspaper said.

Tests were being conducted at a home after a 62-year-old West Pittston woman died from inhaling some sort of gas, the Luzerne County coroner told The Citizens' Voice of Wilkes-Barre. Initial tests showed there was very little oxygen in the house, which had 3 feet of groundwater in the basement.

More than a foot of rain fell in many communities over the five-day period that ended Friday, said meteorologist Jason Krekeler with the National Weather Service in State College. Harrisburg International Airport, which averages about 4 inches of rain in September, was deluged by 13.4 inches over that five-day period.

"One thing to keep in mind is, a lot of these areas were hit fairly hard by (Hurricane) Irene as well, with 3 to 4, 5 inches in some locations," he said.

Across the region, preliminary damage assessments were being conducted on the ground and by air because parts of the state remain inaccessible, said Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency spokesman Cory Angell.

"You don't just open a road when the water goes away," Angell said. "You have to inspect, find out what damage has occurred. Is the bridge stable, for example."

He urged people with losses to report them to their local governments because the dollar value factors into the state's eligibility for federal relief.

As a sign that life was starting to return to normal, the American Red Cross said Monday that only two or three evacuation shelters remained open, down from 16 on Saturday.

New Cumberland, across the Susquehanna River from Harrisburg, lifted its state of emergency Monday after the Yellow Breeches Creek, a tributary of the river, returned to its banks, said borough council president Jack Murray.

In some places, the flooding left a 2-inch layer of mud, and workers have been spraying down roadways to clean it up. About a dozen structures had major damage, Murray said, but most people got out well before the high water hit.

"We had great cooperation from the people who live in the area that was flooded," Murray said. "We only had to tow one car, and my understanding (is) that was people who had to leave quickly."

In York County, bordered by the Susquehanna and the Maryland line, preliminary figures showed 19 homes or businesses were destroyed by flooding, along with another 146 with major damage and some 600 with minor damage, county officials reported.

The Pennsylvania Farm Bureau has fielded reports of damage from throughout the state, including a Wyoming County dairy that had to dump a tank of milk because delivery trucks were blocked by bad roads, a Bradford County winery that lost 10 tons of grapes worth $15,000 and an aquaculture operation that lost $1.75 million worth of fish and equipment from flooding at facilities in York and Lebanon counties.

The bureau says farm losses in the state could reach tens of millions of dollars.

Residents of Pine Grove, a small town in Schuylkill County where the Swatara Creek became a raging river and flooded about 200 homes, were placing ruined belongings by the curb, ripping up soggy carpeting and drywall and pondering how long it will take them to recover from the worst flooding in perhaps a century.

Kelly Maher and Jeff McCurdy, a couple with two children under age 10, were overwhelmed by the task.

Their newly renovated first floor took on 4 feet of water, but they did not have flood insurance and he was recently laid off from his job at a masonry company. They lost furniture, a TV, a computer, kitchen appliances and cabinets and important documents.

McCurdy, 43, ripped away wall paneling to expose soggy wall studs that have already begun to grow mold. He questioned whether it's even worth rebuilding.

"I'm afraid it won't be safe for the kids," he said Monday. "What happens in six months?"

"I haven't cried yet. I'm still in shock," said Maher, 31, who works in accounting at, of all places, the Susquehanna River Basin Commission. "It's as depressing as it gets."

Throughout the Northeast, residents and officials were surveying damage, working on recovery and in some cases, still coping with high waters.

It could be Wednesday before the Passaic River in New Jersey falls below flood stage, forecasters said. Moderate flooding was occurring, and a flood warning was in place at two places along the river, Pine Brook and Little Falls.

In Port Deposit, Md., a few roads were opened on a limited basis Sunday, but the town still required residents along those roads to get permission before returning home. Most of the 1,000 residents had been told to evacuate because of flooding expected from the opening of flood gates at the Conowingo Dam to relieve pressure on the Susquehanna.

In hard-hit Binghamton in southern New York, some residents were being allowed to return home during daylight to begin cleaning up. Schools and businesses were reopening Monday, and classes were resuming at Binghamton University, the Press and Sun-Bulletin reported.

In Apalachin, in Tioga County just west of Binghamton, residents slogged through thick layers of mud as they returned home to check on their properties, many of which are likely to be condemned, officials said.

"Everything in my house is pretty much garbage," John Prosinski, 41, told the newspaper. "I'd rather not come back, but my daughter is in first grade. She loves her school."

___

Rubinkam reported from Pine Grove.

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More rain spurs flash flood watch in battered Northeast (Reuters)

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Still mopping up after tropical storm Irene, Vermont and other Northeastern states were placed under a flash flood watch on Monday as more rain headed their way.

The National Weather Service issued flash flood watches for Monday afternoon lasting through Tuesday for a vast swath of the Northeast, including flooded areas of Vermont and parts of New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts and Connecticut down through Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey.

"This is a potentially dangerous situation" the NWS said in a statement on its website. "Areas hard hit by tropical storm Irene last week will be susceptible to more flash flooding given the already wet and eroded ground. It will not take much rainfall to cause flash flooding in this situation."

The heaviest rain was expected on Monday afternoon.

"Periods of heavy rainfall to persist into Monday evening with localized amounts of 3 inches or greater likely," the weather service said.

"Several rounds of showers and thunderstorms containing torrential downpours will become more numerous today and should continue through tonight."

The areas hardest hit by Irene, including New York's Long Island, northern New Jersey and southern and central Vermont, were advised to be particularly wary of rising waters in rivers and streams that proved deadly in the last storm.

"The combination of today's heavy rainfall along with the ground being saturated from last weekend's rainfall with Irene will increase the threat for flash flooding," the NWS said.

The region also remains on the alert for high winds, with the remnants of Tropical Storm Lee heading northeasterly into the Appalachians by late Tuesday and Hurricane Katia, moving westward in the Atlantic, expected to kick up surf by midweek.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said a tornado touched down in Amsterdam, New York, near Albany, late on Sunday, damaging some structures but causing no serious injuries.

The governor said he called in search and rescue crews who were already in the Albany area due to damage from Irene.

(Reporting by Barbara Goldberg. Editing by Peter Bohan)

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Storms bring deadly flood to Pittsburgh; tornado hits Wisconsin (Reuters)

PITTSBURGH (Reuters) – Severe storms were expected in the Midwest on Saturday and then to add to weekend weather woes in the Northeast, where flash flooding killed at least three people in Pittsburgh on Friday.

Heavy rains submerged cars in flood water that was nine feet deep in places in Pittsburgh, authorities said.

The three victims, identified as a woman and two children, died after their vehicle was pinned against a tree on Washington Boulevard near the Allegheny River.

They were unable to escape, Michael Huss, the city's public safety director, said at a news conference late Friday.

"We have crews that are continuing to search," he said.

Some 18 cars were stranded in the flooding and 11 people had to be rescued, according to local media reports.

Rescue crews used inflatable rafts to reach stranded drivers. Power was out to 8,400 customers.

Earlier, the National Weather Service had issued a flash flood watch for Allegheny County as storms pounded the area, bringing three to four inches of rain, according to the NWS.

Nearly half of all flood fatalities are vehicle related, the NWS warned early Saturday morning in a flood advisory.

"As little as six inches of water will cause you to lose control of your vehicle," the NWS stated. "Two feet of water will carry most vehicles away."

Saturday no active flash flood warnings were in effect from the National Weather Service, but meteorologists for The Weather Channel forecast more storms from the Great Lakes to the Central Plains for the day and into the night.

One man died as storms and a suspected tornado roared across northern Wisconsin on Friday night, cutting off power to around 2,000 homes, the Wisconsin Division of Emergency Management said.

The man was staying in a rented trailer home in the path of the storm, which downed trees in a mile-long swath just north of Wausaukee, 65 miles north of Green Bay, a Marinette County sheriff's spokesman said.

"At around 5 p.m. we had an apparent tornado in the Wausaukee area. We have one fatality," said Lori Getter, spokeswoman for the Wisconsin Division of Emergency Management. She identified the person who died as a middle-aged man.

Friday's storm came three months after a massive tornado devastated Joplin, Missouri, killing 155 people in the deadliest tornado to hit the United States in over 60 years.

Damaging winds and hail were the primary threats for cities like St. Louis, Detroit and Chicago on Saturday, according to weather.com.

Saturday morning, the NWS Doppler radar indicated a fast-moving thunderstorm near Chicago capable of creating "half dollar sized hail," "damaging winds in excess of 60 mph," "deadly lightning," and "very heavy rain."

Saturday's thunderstorm threat will shift to the Northeast Sunday.

(Additional reporting by John Rondy in Milwaukee and Cynthia Johnston in Las Vegas; Writing by Molly O'Toole; Editing by Jerry Norton)

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Woman dies in NC flood while running from police (AP)

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – A woman has drowned while running from Charlotte police who were investigating a report of shoplifting.

Charlotte police say 43-year-old Gracie Nell Johnson was found in a swollen stream Friday afternoon. Another woman who ran with her is still missing.

Police say the pair ran from a Burlington Coat Factory and into the nearby stream after police arrived to investigate a report of three shoplifters at the store. A third person was taken into custody.

As much as six inches of rain fell in parts of North Carolina's largest city Friday, swelling creeks and streams. Dozens of motorists became stranded and some had to be rescued by boat. Two neighborhoods had to be evacuated.

Charlotte Fire Department Captain Rob Brisley says most of the danger had passed by Friday evening.

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Corps of Engineers Continues Assistance in Missouri River Flood Fight (ContributorNetwork)

The Army Corps of Engineers continues its efforts to reduce the damage created by the record water levels along the Missouri River and its tributaries. Six major dams and hundreds of miles of levees have been tested by the historic runoff the river basin is experiencing. Fifteen levees have been breached or overtopped at this time along the lower Missouri.

Main Stem Dams

Fort Peck: The Fort Peck reservoir is at capacity. The current plan is to lower discharges during the remainder of July. The reservoir is currently 2.5 feet below its record height in June.

Garrison: The Garrison reservoir is above the height of the spillway when closed. The open gates are providing surcharge storage and allowing the reservoir to hold additional flood water. Discharges are expected to be reduced slightly during the remainder of July.

Oahe: The Oahe reservoir is very close to capacity. The Corps plans to reduce the water discharge slightly during the rest of the month of July.

Big Bend: The reservoir created by the Big Bend dam is slightly below capacity at this time. Discharges have been reduced by about ten percent for July from the record amount set in June.

Fort Randall: The Fort Randall reservoir is continuing to fill though still below capacity. The Corps plans to increase discharges to offset the increase of water entering the reservoir.

Gavins Point: The reservoir remains about three feet below its record, set in June. Discharges will remain at 160,000 cubic feet per second, a record output, for the foreseeable future.

Lower Missouri River Levees

Federal Levees: 48 federally controlled levees line the Missouri River and its tributaries downstream of Rulo, Kan. Only one has breached or overtopped, at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. One additional levee, near St. Joseph, MO, is within two feet of overtopping.

Non-Federal Levees: These 100 levees currently have a number of issues. Fourteen of them have been breached or overtopped. An additional 26 are within two feet of being overtopped.

The levees are under continued pressure from the flood waters. Most are saturated with water, making their integrity an issue. The Kansas City Star quotes a number of experts who expect additional levee failures. Most of the ten states in the Missouri River basin have activated National Guard units for flood fighting duties, including patrolling levees.

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New Mexico rains douse flames but fuel flood fears (Reuters)

By Dennis J. Carroll Dennis J. Carroll – Mon Jul 11, 6:59 pm ET

SANTA FE, New Mexico (Reuters) – The monsoons arrived on schedule in northern New Mexico on Monday, bringing with them the promise of containing a monster wildfire that has broken records in the state.

But they also brought potential peril from flash floods, wind bursts and lightning, with possible flooding made worse by the ground-clearing fires.

"It's such a Catch-22 with the rains," said Arlene Perea, a fire information officer. "The rains are welcome, but we know there are some problems with it."

The National Weather Service on Monday put out a flash-flood watch for the fire area through at least Wednesday. Forecasters said showers and thunderstorms were expected, with hail, lightning and winds up to 45 miles per hour.

Last week, Governor Susana Martinez issued an emergency declaration to free up about $700,000 in state funds for flood mitigation efforts across the state.

The Las Conchas blaze, New Mexico's largest wildfire ever, has burned 147,642 acres since June 26 when winds knocked an aspen tree against power lines, igniting the fire in the Jemez Mountains about 12 miles southwest of the city of Los Alamos. As of mid-afternoon Monday, it was 50 percent contained.

At one point, the flames had forced the evacuation of the town of about 12,000 and lapped at the borders of the Los Alamos National Laboratory, the linchpin of American's nuclear weapons industry.

The lab was shuttered for about a week amid concerns about the possible release of radioactive and other hazardous materials. Lab officials later insisted no such releases occurred.

On Monday, forestry officials seemed as hopeful as they have been since the fire began.

"We got a big rain on the fire this morning, and things are really looking good, especially on the north end," Perea said.

That area includes the Santa Clara Indian reservation where firefighters have been battling to save sacred and cultural Pueblo sites, including Chicoma Mountain, regarded as "the center of all" by many tribes.

Containment lines were said to be holding on the three sides of the mountain that were burning.

Perea said firefighters had not been plagued by lightning strikes or high winds, and were being kept out of canyons where rainwaters could flow dangerously unimpeded over scorched earth stripped of ground-hugging vegetation.

On the southern end of the blaze, where little rain had fallen as of Monday afternoon, firefighters also were protecting other Pueblo holy sites and ancestral ruins from both fire and possible flooding, said David Schmitt, a fire information officer.

"They are trying to keep the fire intensity low so it doesn't take out the canopy, which will act as a buffer when the rains do come," Schmitt said.

He said there were several flare-ups Monday and over the weekend, but all were well within the fire's containment lines.

Fire lines also were holding north of Los Alamos and the nearby Pajarito Mountain ski resort.

(Editing by Karen Brooks and Greg McCune)

(This story corrects the spelling of the mountain in last paragraph)

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Nebraska residents shrug off flood risk to nuclear plant (Reuters)

BROWNVILLE, Neb (Reuters) – Residents near a nuclear plant on the rain-swollen Missouri River were largely unconcerned about any potential safety risks from flooding ahead of a nuclear regulator's visit on Sunday.

Gregory Jaczko, the chair of the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission will monitor flood preparations during a visit to the Cooper Nuclear Station near Brownville.

The plant is located about 80 miles south of Omaha, where snow melt and heavy rains have forced the waters of the Missouri River over its banks, although they have not flooded the plant and receded slightly on Sunday.

"I just don't think the water is going to get that high," said Brownville resident Kenny Lippold, a retired carpenter who has been following each step of the flood preparations in this riverside village of 148 residents.

"They claim that they are going to keep operating," Lippold said, adding that he will not flee his home of 29 years even though it is less than a mile from the Cooper reactor.

Jaczko will be briefed on Sunday by NRC resident inspectors -- the agency staff who work on-site every day -- plant officials and executives, said Mark Becker, a spokesman at the Nebraska Public Power District, the agency that runs the plant.

Water levels there are down after upstream levees failed, Becker said, relieving worries that water will rise around the Brownville plant as it has at another nuclear plant north of Omaha in Fort Calhoun.

Local shop owner Katy Morgan, 28, said her fears have been assuaged by information she has received via plant officials, who give out emergency radio equipment to residents within a 10-mile radius of the Cooper plant.

"I know everybody freaks out when they talk about nuclear," said Morton, who runs a boutique on Brownville's main thoroughfare. "I suppose if there was a drastic increase in the river I would be concerned. If they say 'evacuate' then I would be concerned," Morton said.

Jaczko will also visit on Monday the Fort Calhoun plant in the town of Fort Calhoun, Nebraska, about 20 miles north of Omaha, an agency official said.

Flood water up to 2-feet deep is standing on the site of the 478-megawatt Fort Calhoun plant, which will stay shut down until the water recedes, the NRC said.

On Sunday afternoon, workers accidentally deflated an auxiliary berm at the plant, said Omaha Public Power District spokesman Jeff Hanson.

Hanson said the "aqua dam" was a supplemental measure that provided workers "more freedom" but was not essential to keeping the plant dry.

"The plant itself is still protected," Hanson said. Floodwater would need to rise over 7 feet to flow over the berms and enter the plant, Hanson said, adding that the supplemental dam was not in original flood prevention plans.

An NRC inspection at Fort Calhoun two years ago indicated deficiencies in the flood preparation area, which have now been remedied, the agency said.

(Writing by Eric Johnson; Editing by Tim Gaynor)

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USDA Gives $3 Million to Five Western States for Flood Aid (ContributorNetwork)

According to a press release from the U.S. Department of Agriculture government website, the USDA announced it will be giving $3 million to five western states to provide emergency watershed protection as each are under threat from potential flood damages as record amounts of mountain snowpack melt.

The announcement was made today by Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, who said the federal funding would come directly from the USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service. Each state -- Colorado, Idaho, Utah, Wyoming and Montana, -- would be receiving financial and technical assistance in the sum of $600,000 for Emergency Watershed Protection. With this government funding, each state's Natural Resources Conservation Service

Vilsack spoke about the importance of bringing emergency funding to each of the five western states as the threat of potential flooding becomes larger. Vilsack said, "Having the EWP Program funds in advance will help USDA work quickly with local, state and tribal sponsors to provide needed assistance if the snowpack melts rapidly and causes flooding. USDA has long played a vital role in helping state and local governments and communities with water management in this region."

Many states are already bracing for flooding as the snowpack melts. According to the Republic in Greeley, Colo., officials have been forced to close several roads because the Poudre River is continuing to rise to higher than normal water levels. Sen. Mark Udall, R-Colo., said that the funding would go toward removing debris and projects that help prevent soil erosion.

Utah is also preparing for the floods as well. Utah National Guard helicopters helped deliver giant sandbags on Friday to help hold back rising floodwaters after a levee on the Weber River breached Thursday due to melting snowpack in the northern part of the state, according to the Salt Lake Tribune. So far the waters have hit farmland and several homes nearby.

The USDA press release noted the EWP Program works with local governments to bring the assistance to where it's needed and that it helps with all different types conservation efforts during major natural disasters, including floods, wildfires, windstorms, and droughts, and aids directly in protecting both citizens and public and private property. In the case of floods, the funding can help reduce storm water runoff, preventing soil erosion, and removing floating and submerged debris that get caught along river routes.

Rachel Bogart provides an in-depth look at current environmental issues and local Chicago news stories. As a college student from the Chicago suburbs pursuing two science degrees, she applies her knowledge and passion to both topics to garner further public awareness.

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In South Dakota, some blame Corps for flood threat (AP)

FORT PIERRE, S.D. – Sitting atop a 6-foot wall of white sandbags hastily stacked to protect his home from the rising Missouri River, 82-year-old Helmet Reuer doesn't buy the official explanation that heavy rains caused a sudden flood threat.

Along with his neighbors in an upscale section of Fort Pierre, Reuer thinks the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers blew it, waiting until too late to begin releasing water through the Missouri's six dams to give itself a cushion against potential flooding.

"It's human error," Reuer said as rising water neared his trim gray house.

Corps officials insist otherwise. They say they were in good shape to handle spring rain and melt from a massive Rocky Mountain snowpack until unexpectedly heavy rains of 8 inches or more fell last month in eastern Montana and Wyoming and western North Dakota and South Dakota.

"This is just a massive rain that fell in the exact wrong place at the exact wrong time," said Eric Stasch, operations manager at Oahe Dam, the huge structure that controls the Missouri's flow just above Fort Pierre and nearby Pierre, South Dakota's capital.

Crews have worked urgently all week to build up levee protections for the two cities, and say they expect to have 2 feet to spare. But Gov. Dennis Daugaard advised people in neighborhoods nearest the river to leave voluntarily in case levees don't hold, and hundreds have done so after a hectic week of moving possessions and adding sandbags around their houses.

They face weeks out of their homes until the river begins cresting in mid-June, with high water expected to linger for up to two months. The small town of Dakota Dunes, S.D., in the southeastern tip of the state, has also erected levees, as has Bismarck, N.D., though the situation is less serious there.

"I think they screwed up royally," former Gov. Mike Rounds said of the Corps, as he moved some possessions from the riverbank house he and his wife built and moved into after he left office in January. "I think they forgot their No. 1 mission, and that's flood protection."

People here were prepared for some higher flows, but many were startled when the Corps announced May 26 it needed to release water much faster than expected from the dams in Montana and the Dakotas.

Jody Farhat, chief of Missouri River Basin water management in the corps' Omaha District, said the agency made no mistakes and has managed releases in accordance with its manual. She said conditions on May 1 indicated peak releases at only a third of what they're now projected, and the reservoir system had full capacity to deal with flood control at the start of the runoff season. All that changed with the record rainfall in the upper basin and additional snow in the mountains, she said.

Farhat said heavy runoff from last year was released before the start of this year's runoff season, and discharges this spring were above normal even before the heavy rainfall upstream.

Corps officials declined a request for a one-one-one interview and provided some information by email, but in a teleconference Thursday, Farhat said the reservoirs had reached the desired levels before snowmelt was to begin.

"And what happened was we had this incredible rainfall event," Farhat said. "That was a rainfall event in May, and that was the game-changer in terms of system operations."

People who live in the flood-threatened areas say this wasn't supposed to happen.

The Missouri River dams were built to control periodic spring flooding and provide hydropower, irrigation and other benefits after Congress passed the Flood Control Act of 1944. Fort Peck Dam, in northeastern Montana, was already operating in 1940 and Oahe, a massive reservoir that runs from North Dakota to the dam near Pierre in central South Dakota, was completed in 1962. Big Bend, about 60 miles downstream from Oahe, was the last dam finished, in 1964.

This is not the first fight over Missouri River water management, but the dispute has more often been about too little water. A series of lawsuits was filed during a prolonged drought that started about a decade ago. Upstream states wanted more water left in the reservoirs to support a growing sport fishing industry, while states downstream wanted more water to support barge traffic on the free-flowing stretch from Sioux City, Iowa, to St. Louis.

The U.S. Supreme Court declined to consider the legal fight in 2006, leaving intact a federal appeals court ruling that said navigation trumps upstream recreation and other interests when the Corps of Engineers manages the river.

In Montana, officials in downstream communities said some people faulted the Corps for not releasing water earlier from Fort Peck Dam, the first in the series of water-control structures on the river.

But Roosevelt County Commissioner Gary MacDonald said he was reluctant to blame the federal agency.

"That's the sentiment here of why did they wait," MacDonald said. "There's no better person for the average John Doe to blame out there than the Corps. They're taking the brunt of it because they're controlling the flow."

Back in South Dakota, Daugaard also declined to criticize the Corps, saying he had seen "no evidence that they're working other than in good faith" to deal with the situation.

At Oahe Dam, the quickening pace of the water releases through rarely used gates — more than 100,000 cubic feet per second and building — makes for a foaming, thundering spray that brought spectators by the carload before it was closed for safety reasons. But many here have no time to appreciate the river's power.

"I'm tired and I'm sick," Mike Richardson said as he loaded household items into a trailer to move them from his Fort Pierre house to higher ground. "I'm better off than a lot of people, I know, but I still can't help but feel sorry for myself. ... Somebody really dropped the ball on this deal."

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Australia flood costs soar to Aus$7bn (AFP)

SYDNEY (AFP) – The damage bill from massive floods which hit northeastern Australia a few months ago will likely be Aus$6.8 billion (US$7.3 billion) -- $1 billion more than previously thought -- an official said Sunday.

Queensland Treasurer Andrew Fraser revised the cost of the natural disaster which affected an area the size of France and Germany combined and was followed within days by the destructive Cyclone Yasi after getting further estimates.

"As well as the tragic human cost, there has also been enormous damage to infrastructure and significant costs incurred in managing the response and recovery process," Fraser said in a statement.

"Such a big damage bill underlines the enormity of the task ahead."

Australia suffered historic floods in December and January which swamped coal mines, ruined roads and other infrastructure and destroyed crops and farmland in Queensland.

The first estimate was that Aus$5.8 billion of damage had been caused by the floods which swamped thousands of homes and paralysed the state capital Brisbane.

Fraser said the revised figure was due to local councils increasing their estimate for repairs by $900 million to more than $2.7 billion.

The floods, which claimed more than 30 lives, also helped Australia's economy to its heaviest contraction for 20 years in the first three months of 2011, according to data released last week.

"It wasn't surprising the economy contracted by 1.2 percent in the quarter, with the floods and cyclones estimated to have sliced 1.7 percentage points from growth," national Treasurer Wayne Swan said in his weekly note.

Swan said the floods and cyclones in both northern and western Australia had cost $12 billion in lost production, some $6.7 billion of which was in the March quarter, chiefly in the key coal mining industry.

Australia is home to the world's largest coal export port and sends millions of tonnes of the fuel annually to Asian steelmakers and power companies, with total 2010 shipments worth Aus$43 billion.

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