Weather

A car dodges fallen tree limbs and power lines in Watertown, N.Y., on Saturday. Photo by Associated Press

Firefighters check downed power lines in Winooski, Vt. Photo by Associated Press

Authorities here in the capital declared a state of emergency on Thursday as millions of people in eastern Canada went without lights or heat and at least five people died after ice storms - among the worst this century - downed power lines and coated roads and trees over the last few days. Nonessential government employees were sent home early, and the area's main highway was closed ecause of treacherous road conditions. Schools were shut, and Ottawa International Airport was forced to cancel most flights.

Nearly half-a-million homes in Quebec remained without electricity Wednesday night after savage ice storms pummeled the province, causing one of the worst blackouts in Canadian history. Many roads were closed and delays at airports stretched for hours, while ice-laden trees and huge limbs fell by the thousands on city streets, crushing parked cars and posing such a danger for pedestrians that police pleaded with citizens to stay inside.

A Spokane teenager is dead after the truck he was riding in slid out of control and plowed into a tow truck that was winching a second pickup free from a ditch. Michael J. Williams, 19, was flown to Sacred Heart Medical Center after the 10 a.m. accident Sunday. He died there at 12:37 p.m., the Washington State Patrol reported. The crash happened 13 miles west of Spokane on Interstate 90. Williams and driver Nick M. Gonnella were in a 1990 Mazda pickup, heading west. Gonnella lost control on the slick surface, slid onto the shoulder and smashed into the tow truck. The tow truck driver, Keith R. Gilbert of Medical Lake, was working the controls of his winch and was thrown 25 feet. Williams died of a chest injury, WSP said. Gonnella, 19, suffered face and leg injuries and was taken to Sacred Heart. The tow truck driver suffered bruises.

Victims sort through their belongings in the ruins of a home in Haines City, Fla., on Saturday after a tornado ripped through the town. Photo by Associated Press

Liz Chai hides her face from the blowing snow as her mother, Sally Chai, hides behind her on Wednesday in Iowa City, Iowa, during a snowstorm that left much of the Midwest white. The two were doing last-minute Christmas shopping when the snow began. Photo by Associated Press

A front end loader moves snow from the U.S. Post Office in Roswell, N.M., on Tuesday after heavy snows hit southeastern New New Mexico on Monday. Photo by Associated Press

Some people believe the ballyhooed El Nino is more hype than reality. Others think it's already going away. They are wrong. Although El Nino has had few of its predicted catastrophic effects in Northern California, the ocean-warming phenomenon already has produced mischief elsewhere by disrupting normal weather patterns.

Traylene Mathwig, 4, left, and Pasha Skirko enjoy the last traces of snow at Manito Park on Monday. Although the snow on the park's hills is melting away, there's still enough for a decent ride. Photo by Liz Kishimoto/The Spokesman-Review

A North Korean woman and a family friend sit by the bedside of her malnourished son, who is suffering from severe pneumonia in Sinuju, North Korea. The boy was sent home from the hospital because it had no fuel to heat the rooms. Photo by Associated Press

The Atlantic hurricane season was a lot less windy than usual. El Nino is the reason. Three hurricanes blew in from the Atlantic during a storm season that ended Sunday. Six is average.

A Japanese freighter grounded just off-shore from this Aleutian port was listing dangerously to one side late Sunday and Coast Guard officials said they feared it might tip over in stormy seas. "The weather has gotten worse and there's an opportunity here for things to go bad," Coast Guard spokesman Chris Haley said.

Powerful gusts drove a foreign freighter aground, leaving two crewmen dead and 16 others stranded for hours on the rocks off Dutch Harbor in the Aleutian Islands 800 miles southwest of here. The 368-foot vessel Kuroshima went aground Wednesday afternoon in 90 mph winds about 100 yards offshore, the Coast Guard said.

Handlers struggle to keep Peter Rabbit from bounding out of the annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in gusty New York. Photo by Associated Press

Wild animals attacked villagers marooned on small patches of dry ground in flooded southern Somalia, aid agencies reported Saturday. Hyenas prowled at the edge of the rapidly widening Juba River, hunting human prey, the American Refugee Committee reported.

Dying to ski? You'll have a chance Saturday. Following tradition, Lookout Pass Ski Area on the Montana-Idaho border is opening earlier than the region's other ski hills. "We've got about 20 inches out there, and it's still snowing," Dean Cooper, general manager of Lookout Pass, said late Thursday afternoon. "With 2 feet, we'll be able to go."

Monsoon rains cleared the air over Southeast Asia on Wednesday, bringing relief to millions who have suffered for months from a choking haze that has endangered their health. "The whole region is clearing," said Wong Teo Suan of Singapore's Meteorological Services. "Whatever remains behind should be doused by rain."

Heavy rain pounded Ethiopia again Saturday, feeding the overflowing rivers that have killed some 2,000 people and are threatening to create an inland sea in southern Somalia. A month of flooding has inundated large areas of southern Somalia between the Ethiopian border and the Indian Ocean. High water has wiped out the freshly harvested staple crop of sorghum and left hundreds of thousands homeless and hungry. The death toll is rising so fast that aid agencies can only guess at the carnage. David Neff, CARE's director for Somalia, said any estimate below 2,000 dead "has got to be conservative." He said the Juba River, which originates in Ethiopia and runs south to the Somali port of Kismayo, is now eight miles wide at some points. "Normally, this is what we would call a creek in the American Midwest," Neff said. The Red Cross has been making twice-a-day deliveries of high-protein biscuits and plastic sheeting, landing at the few airstrips in Somalia that were still above water. Pilots have spotted families stuck for days in trees. Other bits of high ground will be wiped out if the floods rise just a few feet more, said spokesman Josue Anselmo. Ten more days of rain are forecast for Ethiopia, also the origin of the overflowing Shabelle river. According to the Somali Flood Response office, an estimated 210,000 people have fled their homes, and there was fear that the Juba and the Shabelle might merge to create an inland sea covering 60 square miles. The U.N. World Food Program said more than 148,200 acres of prime farm land was underwater. "Somalia just reaped its best sorghum harvest in years," Anne Mulcahy of Save the Children said. "The floods have ruined everything." Flash floods submerged 90 percent of the town of El-Waq on the Somali-Kenyan border Thursday night, killing at least 125 people and forcing 17,000 others to flee to higher ground. Another 84 towns also had to be abandoned. Agencies have had little success so far in their appeal for helicopters to airdrop food and medicine. UNICEF spokeswoman Lynn Geldof said agencies had received pledges of about half the $9.6 billion needed. Somalia has had no central government since January 1991, when armed factions ousted late dictator Mohamed Siad Barre, then turned against each other. Many donor countries are reluctant to return to Somalia, where their missions were attacked and robbed beginning in 1992 by warring militia during a three-year U.S.-led effort to help famine victims. Most agencies pulled out in 1995. Patrick Berner, head of the Red Cross delegation for Somalia, said the situation has changed from a conflict to a natural disaster. "We cannot close our eyes," he said. "People are dying every day in Somalia."