Weather

With a fury not seen in a decade, a typhoon raged through the main Philippine island of Luzon on Friday, killing at least 65 people and destroying millions of dollars worth of crops and and property. With winds of up to 130 miles an hour, the storm, designated Angela, cut a swath of destruction through much of Luzon, downing power lines, burying fields and homes and sending tons of ash down the slopes of the Mount Pinatubo volcano.

Storm-weary residents of the U.S. Virgin Islands prepared Monday for Sebastien, the fourth major storm to pass through the region in less than two months. Many residents already are living under blue plastic tarpaulins after their roofs blew away during Hurricane Marilyn last month, and predictions of more heavy rain and high winds sent them scurrying for cover. "I'm so tired of this I could cry," said St. John schoolteacher Jamie Hulse.

Roxanne regained hurricane force Saturday and wandered through the center of the Gulf of Mexico, threatening to cause more havoc in coastal areas still recovering from its first swipe. As Roxanne drifted slowly eastward, Mexican officials posted a hurricane warning for more than 1,200 miles of coastline, from Tampico on the central Gulf coast to Progreso on the Yucatan Peninsula.

The first tropical storm with an "R" name - Roxanne - formed in the Caribbean on Monday, taking a path similar to the one Hurricane Opal followed when it killed 10 people in Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula last week. Roxanne became the 17th tropical storm of the busy 1995 Atlantic hurricane season when its sustained winds reached the 39 mph threshold. The record for tropical storms and hurricanes in a season is 21, set in 1933.

As Opal was about to jam itself into overdrive, the rest of the world was looking elsewhere. Specifically, at a champagne victory party at O.J. Simpson's Brentwood estate. That distraction may have proved fatal. For in an extraordinary confluence of huge news events and lousy timing, Opal got short shrift. And without the full bore of media attention on the storm as it headed for land, one of the most powerful hurricanes to ever hit the United States blindsided the very people who should have known it was coming - the people in its path.

The growing season in parts of the Midwest skidded to an early, icy halt Friday, the last full day of summer, with a crop-killing freeze that damaged soybeans, corn and other grains. "It's not a total loss by any means," said Chuck Burr, extension educator for Clay and Webster counties in Nebraska. "But I think it's pretty severe. It was 26 degrees when I got up this morning, and I'm sure that it had been there several hours, and that's enough to kill off most crops."

Summer snow fell early Thursday in parts of Nebraska and Kansas, and 9 inches was reported near Denver. Temperatures were driven down to record lows in Montana, North Dakota, Colorado and Nebraska. Rain stretched from Illinois to the southern Plains, with a cold snap in much of the nation's farm country and heavy thunderstorms in parts of the Southwest. Farmers who planted late because of a wet spring feared young plants were vulnerable to early frost.

1. Hurricane Marilyn tossed around cars on the island of St. Thomas. Photo by Associated Press 2. Sitting near the remains of their Culebra home are Elizabeth Arizmendi and her three children, from left, Irma, Anibal and Jean Vega. Photo by Associated Press (This photo appeared in Regional edition only).

Rescuers on Saturday found the bodies of more fishermen drowned by Hurricane Ismael, increasing the death toll from the Pacific Ocean storm to at least 20, television reports said. Helicopters patrolling the turbulent waters off the Pacific coast of Sinaloa state in northwestern Mexico had recovered 20 bodies by Saturday, according to the newspaper El Debate de Los Mochis.

The most powerful storm to hit Japan since World War II churned north along the nation's eastern islands Sunday, buffeting them with heavy rain and 110-mph winds. There were no immediate reports of serious injuries.

Trees crashed, power failed and roiling seas flooded a waterfront Friday as the Virgin Islands took a direct hit from Hurricane Marilyn's howling 100-mph winds and 12-foot waves. Marilyn, the fourth hurricane to hit the Caribbean in as many weeks, struck as islanders on St. Croix still were repairing the damage wrought by Hurricane Luis with its 140-mph winds last week.

Rubble fills the streets of St. John's, the Antigua capital. Photo by Associated Press

Monsoon rains blanketed northern India on Friday, sending flood waters surging into the slums of New Delhi and raising the death toll in a week of flooding to more than 400 people. The Yamuna River overflowed its banks, forcing New Delhi to evacuate thousands from its shantytowns, close its main bus station and cancel 40 percent of its train traffic.

Rescue workers in the southern Philippines found 11 more bodies Friday, bringing the death toll from flash floods this week to 26. At least 117 others remained missing. Four hundred people earlier reported as missing were found safe on high ground in an isolated village, Red Cross officials said Friday. The South Cotabato provincial welfare office said 100 of the at least 117 people still missing were from a single village.

A lightning strike from Thursday's storm apparently sparked a Post Falls mobile home fire. Photo by Craig Buck/The Spokesman-Review

A man walks past an overturned house tipped over by Hurricane Luis on a road outside St. John's, Antigua. Photo by Associated Press

Commuters sail home through the Hamilton and Trent intersection. Photo by Sandra Bancroft-Billings/The Spokesman-Review

Carrying winds gusting to 160 mph, Hurricane Luis roared west Monday toward the Caribbean, where nervous islanders boarded up buildings and frightened tourists jammed airports trying to escape. The 700-mile-wide storm, with sustained winds of 140 mph, could be the most destructive storm in the Caribbean in a half-century - even worse than Hurricane Hugo in 1989.

The Carolinas mopped up, scraped up mud and chased out wildlife Monday after a weekend of flooding caused by the leftovers of Tropical Storm Jerry in which at least seven people drowned. Hundreds of people had been forced to evacuate after the region was swamped by as much as 15 inches of rain. And while streams receded Monday in the foothills and mountains, rising rivers caused new flooding in low-lying areas downstream.