Weather News

GENEVA (AFP) - Flooding in the world's major port cities caused by melting icecaps could cause up to 28 trillion dollars (18 trillion euros) in damage in 2050, environmental group WWF said in a report Monday.

LONDON - Police and army experts say they're urgently checking the safety of about 1,800 bridges in northern England amid some of the worst storms ever recorded in Britain.

COCKERMOUTH, England (Reuters) - Lifeboats and military helicopters rescued hundreds of people overnight in northern England and a policeman was killed as torrential rain flooded homes, washed away bridges and closed roads.

LONDON (AFP) - Rescuers were working on Friday to evacuate about 200 people by helicopter from a town after storms triggered flooding across parts of the country, police said.

NEW ORLEANS - A landmark court ruling blaming the Army Corps of Engineers' "monumental negligence" for some of the worst flooding from Hurricane Katrina could lead to a new deluge: billions of dollars in legal action from thousands of storm victims.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Warmer-than-average temperatures are forecast for the northern and western United States this December, the U.S. National Weather Service said Thursday, with the government unable to offer a projection for the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states.

HOUSTON (Reuters) - A U.S. judge ruled on Wednesday the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was negligent in maintaining a key navigational channel in New Orleans and was liable for some damage caused by massive flooding from Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador - Salvadoran authorities say at least 192 people were killed by floods and landslides that swept through the country last week.

LONDON (AFP) - Residents in flood-hit northwest England began returning to their homes Monday but police warned it could take years to recover from the devastation left by the heaviest rainfall on record.

OCEAN CITY, N.J. - A powerful storm born from the remnants of Tropical Storm Ida began moving out to sea Friday after raking the East Coast for three days, leaving behind it a trail of flooding, damaged buildings, eroded beaches and at least six deaths.

GULF SHORES, Ala. - An Atlantic bottlenose dolphin is being treated for dehydration and pneumonia after it was found stranded following Tropical Storm Ida's brush with the Alabama coast.

WASHINGTON - Rescuers have evacuated several shops in southeast Washington, D.C., over concerns that nearby buildings under construction might collapse because the ground is soaked from recent rain.

RICHMOND, Va. - With his state under an emergency declaration because of heavy rain and floods Thursday, Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine was in Arkansas for a Democratic fundraiser.

MIAMI (Reuters) - Rain from Tropical Storm Ida further slowed the cotton, soybean and sweet potato harvest in Mississippi, where crop losses were devastating even before the storm hit, a state agriculture official said on Thursday.

SAN SALVADOR (AFP) - Rescue workers have tried to reach survivors of floods and landslides unleashed by late-season storms, as common graves were being dug around the country to handle the growing death toll that now stands at 152.

PENSACOLA, Fla. - Tropical Storm Ida sloshed ashore with rain and gusty winds Tuesday before weakening to a depression, causing little damage along the Gulf Coast but bringing more rain to the already-soaked Southeast.

NEW DELHI - A landslide triggered by torrential seasonal rains swept through a hilly region in southern India, killing at least 42 people, an official said Tuesday.

MOBILE, Alabama (Reuters) - Ida dwindled to a tropical depression on Tuesday after crawling ashore in Alabama from the Gulf of Mexico, and oil operations in the Gulf were quickly returning to normal after being widely disrupted by the storm.

BEIJING - Rising temperatures over the next few decades will unleash storms, floods and drought across China's Yangtze River Basin, a new report says, raising the prospect of catastrophe for a region that is home to nearly a third of the country's population.

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (AFP) - Weakened remnants of what was once Hurricane Ida made landfall on the US Gulf coast Tuesday, dumping heavy rain and triggering some flooding but without the deadly winds Ida packed over the weekend.

MIAMI - Forecasters say Ida has weakened to a tropical depression and is heading east toward the Florida Panhandle with winds near 35 mph (55 kph).

CHENNAI, India (Reuters) - At least 43 people have been killed in landslides caused by torrential rains in the Nilgiris hills in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, officials said on Tuesday.

CHENNAI, India (AFP) - Heavy rain in southern India triggered flash floods and landslides that killed 45 people in the last 24 hours and left about 1,000 tourists stranded, police said Tuesday.

GULF SHORES, Ala. - Tropical Storm Ida blew ashore with rain and gusty but weakening winds before dawn Tuesday as weather-hardened Gulf Coast residents rode out the rare late-season storm.

SINGAPORE - Oil prices fell below $79 a barrel Tuesday in Asia as a storm threatening oil installations in the Gulf of Mexico weakened and investors eyed a volatile dollar.

RATHGAMA, Sri Lanka (AFP) - Raj Rajaratnam, a billionaire financier facing insider trading charges in the United States, is recalled in stone in one of the villages he helped recover from the Asian tsunami in 2004.

VILLAHERMOSA, Mexico - The Mexican government has declared parts of the Gulf coast state of Tabasco disaster zones due to flooding from days of heavy rains, freeing up federal relief funds for the area.

BERLIN - Ulrich Sauff and his wife stared at the mammoth domino pieces marking the path where the Berlin Wall once stood and reminisced about life in the barrier's shadow.

NEW ORLEANS - The Coast Guard says two Chevron Corp. workers have been rescued from an oil rig that was in danger of toppling as Tropical Storm Ida churned up high seas.