Weather

The tiny coastal village of Ribeira Quente buried some of its dead Sunday as the storm that killed 29 people moved away from the Azores and battered the Portuguese mainland. Rescue workers on Sunday found 11 more bodies buried under a mudslide caused by the flash floods that swept the archipelago's largest island of Sao Miguel on Friday. Civil protection officials said the final death toll was 29. No one else was missing, they said. Eight people were buried Sunday at a cemetery only yards from the site of the landslide. Ten other victims were buried Saturday. The storm moved away from the group of Atlantic islands late Friday and reached the western coast of Portugal, 900 miles to the northeast, Saturday night.

Some of the thousands of people in Nebraska's largest cities grew angry and impatient as they waited for crews to bring electricity back to homes that have been without power since Sunday. "I'm about ready to snap someone's head off," 61-year-old Jo Schutte said as she waited for power to be restored in her Omaha home.

Trucks loaded with tree branches line up on a Lincoln, Neb., street as they wait their turn at a drop-off site Tuesday. It is estimated the city may lose 25,000 trees in the aftermath of last weekend's storm. About 32,000 people, primarily in Omaha and Lincoln, were without electricity Wednesday for the fourth day after the storm. Photo by Associated Press

Burning near the northern Brazilian city of Manaus is choking the 1.1 million residents, and drought further adds to their woes. Photo by Associated Press

A resident of Denver attempts to clear snow in front of his home Monday. Photo by Associated Press

A boy makes his way through snowdrifts in Colorado Springs, Colo. Photo by Associated Press

Fresh from his workout at the Denver Athletic Club, Robert Graham uses his cross-country skis to navigate Bannock Street as he heads home early Saturday. Photo by Associated Press

The biggest rockslides in more than half a century at Mount Adams probably were triggered by rain, and there is no sign the 12,276-foot volcano will erupt anytime soon, scientists say. "The upper parts of the Cascade volcanoes are as saturated with water as they've been for some time," said Richard Iverson, a landslide specialist for the U.S. Geological Survey's Cascades Volcano Observatory in Vancouver.

Police stand near a line of 100 people waiting at the entrance of a facility where the Mexican military was distributing food and clothing to hurricane victims. Photo by Associated Press

The winds have yet to blow. The rain has yet to pour. But this fall, the threat of a powerful wallop from El Nino hangs like a rare storm cloud over the perpetually sunny skies of Southern California. Constant publicity about the unpredictable worldwide weather phenomenon has brought big business to West Coast insurance agents, who are writing out flood insurance policies by the thousands every day.

With the calming of cyclone-churned seas off the coast of Bangladesh, rescuers began searching Sunday for nearly 500 missing fishermen after the weekend storm that killed at least 51 people and left thousands injured, officials said. Many fishermen could have taken shelter after hearing cyclone warnings, but they have yet to return home, the relief ministry officials said in Dhaka, the Bangladesh capital.

Boy Scouts Mark Miles, 12, left, and Justin Billdt, 13, of Yuma, Ariz., help fill sandbags Thursday. Photo by Associated Press

El Nino has caused a severe drought in the islands of the Western Pacific Ocean, threatening more than a million people with famine and creating kindling-dry conditions in Indonesia that have sparked thousands of untamed forest fires. At least 250 people have died on New Guinea from starvation and cholera. A thick smog, brought on by raging forest fires, covers much of neighboring Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei and has raised air pollution to dangerously high levels. A state of emergency declared for parts of Borneo Island was extended Monday because of the haze, which Indonesian officials say threatens the health of up to 20 million people in Southeast Asia.

There's trouble in the air. Specifically, in the air off the west coast of the Americas, where the sea surface has been heated to abnormal extremes by an ominous, intermittent flood of hot water called El Nino. The last time conditions looked like this was when the strongest, most destructive El Nino on record struck in 1982-83. By the time that event subsided, some 2,000 people had died in flooding, mudslides, droughts, fires and sundry related calamities, hundreds of thousands were forced out of their homes, and economic losses topped $8 billion worldwide - $1.5 billion in the United States. This year's version promises to approach or even equal 1982-83, which climate researcher James J. O'Brien of Florida State University's Center for Ocean-Atmospheric Prediction Studies (COAPS) calls "the mother of all Los Ninos." Already, El Nino has begun to have dramatic effects in some parts of the world and the U.N.-sponsored World Climate Research Programme warns it "could be the climatic event of the century."

Hurricane Nora strengthened Sunday as it shifted course and headed north toward the Baja California peninsula, threatening a half-dozen tiny islands in the Pacific Ocean. The Mexican government posted hurricane warnings for the sparsely populated Socorro Island and nearby Revillagigedo Islands.

The economic fallout from a summer hailstorm that virtually destroyed the Okanagan area's apple crop has reached packing houses. Only about 70 people are working at the city's biggest fruit processing plant, compared with the 140 employees normally needed in September to sort and ship the fruit.

A storm that dumped about four-tenths of an inch of rain on the Boise Foothills in just 10 minutes caused flash flooding and prompted the voluntary evacuation of some parts of the city's north side Thursday night. The National Weather Service issued a flash-flood warning for the Reserve Street and St. Luke's Regional Medical Center areas because of fast-rising water along Cottonwood Creek.

Hurricane Erika battered beaches and coral reefs with 105-mph winds as it skirted the northeast Caribbean, tempting some surfers to ignore warnings and frolic in Puerto Rico. Officials said dangerous swells would continue to pummel the north-facing coastlines of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands today, when Erika was expected to grow stronger even as it turned slowly away from land.

Hurricane Erika grew stronger Saturday while it lurked off the northeastern Caribbean, packing 85 mph winds and torrential rain and churning 12-foot seas. Businesses closed on the threatened islands, shelters opened and anxious residents boarded up homes and stocked up on rations to wait out the storm. Hurricane warnings were in effect for Anguilla, St. Barthelemy and St.