Weather

A woman was killed when a tree fell on a pickup truck and a pilot was critically injured when his home-built plane crashed into a house as a severe windstorm swept across Washington on Sunday. High winds also tore the roof off a commercial dairy barn in Kent, knocked out electrical service to thousands in the Puget Sound area and prompted dozens of calls to the Coast Guard from distressed mariners.

Residents in the Lincoln County town of Sprague erected walls of sandbags Friday to keep floodwaters out of homes and businesses, and Spokane County commissioners declared a state of emergency because of widespread flooding. Negro Creek, which runs through Sprague, began spilling over its banks Thursday and by Friday afternoon had inundated parts of the downtown, officials said.

Dave Cornelius carries his wife Kathy across their flooded yard to the car. Their yard was submerged by the waters of Chester Creek, which breached its banks because of recent rain and melting snow. Photo by Steve Thompson/The Spokesman-Review

Winter is ending the way it began in Western Washington, with torrential rain, flooding and mudslides that destroyed at least four homes and forced the evacuation of dozens more. On Wednesday, a slide knocked a small frame house off its foundation into the middle of a residential street in Seattle's Beacon Hill neighborhood. No one was hurt.

More rain, higher temperatures and a swollen snowpack kept area officials and residents alert Wednesday. "We're finally starting to see the fruit of that small stream advisory come to pass," said Brian Avery, a National Weather Service hydrologist. The freezing level was up to 7,000 feet Wednesday, well above any terrain in North Idaho. While the Coeur d'Alene and St. Joe rivers remained more than 5 feet below flood stage, streams and localized runoff from snowmelt overwhelmed some culverts and basements.

1. Inmates from Airway Heights battle the overflowing Little Spokane, loading sandbags along Meadowbrook Road. 2. "You wonder if it's worth it," says David Myers, who tries to protect his home near Mead by stacking briks and sandbags against rising Deadman Creek. Photo by Dan McComb/The Spokesman-Review 3. County crews shore up Valley Chapel Road against rising Latah Creek. Photo by Christopher Anderson/The Spokesman-Review

Warm temperatures and rain are conspiring to turn gurgling streams into raging torrents around North Idaho. The National Weather Service has issued a small stream flood advisory for North Idaho and northeastern Washington in anticipation of a rapid runoff.

Chris Godwin, Chris Johnson and Tristan Firestone venture onto "Lake Firestone" in the West Plains area on Tuesday. Photo by Dan McComb/The Spokesman-Review

1. Patrick Harmon, 14, bails part of the Ohio River from his parents' laundry business Saturday in Rockport, Ind. Photo by Associated Press 2. Gore

New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, left, talks to the media as U.S. Rep. Floyd Flake reacts during a news conference, Thursday. Photo by Associated Press

Darrell Jenkins rescues his neighbor's six cats Tuesday in New Richmond, Ohio. Photo by Associated Press

Slick roads sent five people to the hospital Tuesday morning, including a man whose car slid into the side of a fast-moving train. None of the people were seriously injured, said Idaho State Police. "How the guy in the train wreck got out of it with minor injuries I don't know," said Lt. Doug Camster. "He was very lucky." Zane W. Hall, 40, of Rathdrum, was driving his pickup south on Beck Road near Hauser about 6 a.m. Tuesday. It is an area where several fatal train-car accidents have occurred.

This has been the nonwinter on the East Coast. From Boston to Washington, temperatures have been more than 5 degrees above normal, and what snowfall there has been can be measured in mere inches. For those in the business of profiting by snow, the winter that wasn't means the cash that isn't. So, with March here, the financial damage is being assessed: personal injury lawyers say business is down; sanitation workers are complaining that they've lost thousands of dollars in overtime; ski areas say that even with advanced snow-making equipment, people are not thinking winter.

1. Most of downtown Arkadelphia, Ark., was leveled by Saturday's tornadoes, which killed six people in the college town of about 10,000. Photo by Associated Press 2. Residents paddle though an apartment complex Sunday in Jefferson County, Ky. Photo by Associated Press

More feared than asteroids, pockets of quicksand southwest of Spokane are swallowing cows faster than you can say "extinction." Several farmers and livestock experts say that unsuspecting herds are drifting into the sinking soup of sand, where thawing range land saturated by a long, wet winter has begun to collapse into a merciless morass.

At least 40 people are missing in a blizzard on the frozen tundra of Russia's Yamal peninsula, a news agency reported Thursday. Four vehicles - including a bus with 30 people aboard - left Tuesday from the town of Labytnanga, near the Arctic circle some 1,400 miles northeast of Moscow, the ITAR-Tass news agency said. They were headed for Muzhi, 150 miles across the tundra. On the same day, three vehicles set out from Muzhi to meet the convoy, ITAR-Tass said. By Thursday, there was was no word from either group, it said. Officials believe the two convoys may have become lost in a blizzard. A rescue caravan was organized to trace the route, ITAR-Tass said. A helicopter was standing by to help, if the weather permits, it said.

Clear skies and receding rivers are giving disaster relief workers an upper hand in their effort to shore up levees and clean away mudslides in Southwest Idaho. Flood alerts for Boise, Payette and Gem counties were called off at noon Saturday by the National Weather Service.

More than 20 percent of the roads in Adams County will be closed for several days due to rapid snowmelt. A crew of eight people had been on call since 5 a.m. Saturday as water continued to wash across the roads, said Gale Culm, area supervisor for the county's public works department.

The amount of rain that fell on Vancouver wasn't unusual. The short time it took was. Homeowners and municipal workers were tallying the damage Thursday after torrential rains flooded basements, roads and streets.