Mississippi floods could take weeks to recede

Jesse Willis looks over his flooded yard and home May 9, 2011 in Memphis. Officials estimate about 1,300 homes in the city are at risk of suffering dangerous flooding. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

MEMPHIS, TENN. — The Mississippi River crested in Memphis on Tuesday at a height just centimetres short of the area's all-time record but still soaking low-lying areas with enough water to require a massive cleanup.

The soaking in Memphis was isolated to low-lying neighbourhoods, and forced hundreds of people from their homes, but no new serious flooding was expected. Officials trusted the levees would hold and protect the city's world-famous musical landmarks, from Elvis Presley's Graceland mansion to Beale Street, the famous thoroughfare known for blues music.

National Weather Service meteorologist Bill Borghoff says the river reached 14.58 metres at 2 a.m. Tuesday and was expected to stay very close to that level for the next 24 to 36 hours. Reaching its high point means things shouldn't get worse in the area, but it will take weeks for the water to recede and much longer for inundated areas to recover.

“Pretty much the damage has been done,” Borghoff said.

The crest is just shy of the record of 14.8 metres at Memphis reached during a devastating 1937 flood.

In many neighbourhoods, foul-smelling water approached the roofs of homes, and plastic bottles, garbage cans and rotting tree limbs floated on top. Residents said they've spotted snakes and fish in the water, while officials warned them of unseen bacteria.

Some greeted news of the river cresting with relief, but for others it was of little consolation. Rocio Rodriguez, 24, has been at a shelter for 12 days with her husband and two young children since their trailer park flooded.

Told by a reporter that the river had hit its high point, she said: “It doesn't matter. We've already lost everything.”

Surrounding Shelby County and four others were declared disaster areas by President Barack Obama, which means that they'll be eligible for much-needed federal disaster aid. About 500 people were in shelters.

Bob Nations Jr., director of the Shelby County Emergency Management Agency, described on Monday what he expects to be slow and costly retreat by the high water: “They're going to recede slowly, it's going to be rather putrid, it's going to be expensive to clean up, it's going to be labour-intensive.”

The slow-moving disaster was headed downstream to Mississippi and Louisiana, where residents were bracing themselves. Farmers downriver built homemade levees to protect their crops and engineers diverted water into a lake to ease the pressure on New Orleans levees. Inmates in Louisiana's largest prison were also evacuated to higher ground.

Meanwhile, Memphis declared that the city was open for business Monday night. The local professional basketball team played a game as scheduled and a barbecue contest this weekend has been moved to higher ground.

“The country thinks we're in lifeboats and we are underwater. For visitors, its business as usual,” said Kevin Kane, president and chief executive of the Memphis Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Besides Graceland, other popular Memphis sites were also spared, including Sun Studio, where Presley made some of the recordings that helped him become king of rock 'n' roll and Stax Records, which launched the careers of Otis Redding and the Staple Singers.

The Mississippi River has broken high-water records upstream and inundated low-lying towns and farmland because of heavy rain over the past few weeks and melting snow. The water on the Mississippi is so high that the rivers and creeks that feed into it are backed up, and that has accounted for some of the worst of the flooding so far.

--The Associated Press

A cow stands on a levee holding back floodwater from the Mississippi River May 9, 2011 near Tomato, Arkansas.  (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

A shoe floats on floodwater and debris in the middle of a street May 9, 2011 in Memphis. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Jermaine Jarrett paddles a boat down a flooded street in his neighbourhood May 9, 2011 in Memphis. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Townhomes on Mud Island sit in floodwater from the Mississippi River May 10, 2011 in Memphis. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Water covers a gravestone May 9, 2011 in Luxora, Arkansas.(Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

9 confirmed dead in U.S. storms

People stand near a destroyed house in Vilonia, Ark., Tuesday, April 26, 2011, after a tornado struck the area late Monday. (AP Photo/Danny Johnston)

 VILONIA, Ark. — A tornado tore up a small central Arkansas town, killing four people and leaving the governor wondering Tuesday how so many others managed to survive. The night of brutal storms killed at least nine people in the state, and more harsh weather was forecast.
The tornado smashed through the heart of Vilonia, just north of Little Rock, on Monday night, ripping the roof off the grocery store, flattening homes, tossing vehicles into the air and twisting one tractor-trailer like a wrung dish rag.
Gov. Mike Beebe toured the rural community of 3,800 with emergency officials Tuesday morning and talked with storm survivors as they cleared debris from their homes.
"These folks have faced some terrible losses and I'm surprised there aren't more fatalities, based upon looking at some of the damage," Beebe said.
Beebe credited the survivals on an early tornado-warning system, "luck" and "just the good Lord watching over."
The tornado battered most of the homes in the Quail Hollow subdivision of Vilonia, leaving many without a roof. A wooden fence could be seen sticking out of the top one house.
Terina Atkins, a middle school librarian, said she and her family rode out the storm in their laundry room. Adkins said she heard a loud sucking noise and realized that air was being sucked out through the drain.
"We clogged up the sink and we could feel our ears popping," Atkins said.
Faulkner County spokesman Stephan Hawks said the infrastructure in and around Vilonia was badly damaged.
"One of the hardest hit things is the utilities. It tore down power lines for, gosh, I'd guess a mile or so. It snapped overhead poles like they were toothpicks. It's pretty devastating," Hawks said. "It was a heck of a little tornado."
In Garland County, about 60 miles southwest of Little Rock, rescuers struggled because of the tremendous number of downed trees and power lines.
"We still at this time have people trapped in homes that have not been reached because of downed power poles and storm damage," Garland County emergency management coordinator Joy Sanders said.
"It looks like we got run over three or four times," Sanders said.
Garland County sheriff's spokesman Judy Daniell said an 8-month-old baby was sent to Arkansas Children's Hospital in Little Rock with a head injury, but that no other major injuries have been reported in the area.
Crews are double-checking homes to make sure there are no more victims, Daniell said.
The deaths from Monday's storms bring this month's storm-related death toll in Arkansas to 15. And forecasters said another bout of bad weather was expected to hammer the state Tuesday afternoon, further complicating rescue efforts.
"It may not be over," Beebe said.
The National Weather Service office in North Little Rock sent teams to Vilonia and Garland County to investigate the damage and assess how much of it was caused by tornadic or straight-line winds.
John Robinson, a weather service warning coordination meteorologist, said it could take days to survey all the damage from Monday's storms.
"It wouldn't surprise me if we were to end up with a count of 10 or 12 tornadoes by the time all the surveys are completed," Robinson said.
Rescuers in Garland County battled to reach areas that were cut off late Monday by the flooding.
Sanders, the emergency coordinator, said crews used boats to rescue people from some storm-damaged areas.
"It's difficult this early on to find out what really has happened," said Sanders, who noted that rescuers have thus far relied on reports from residents who speculated about which of their neighbors may have been home when the storm swiped the region.
Flooding also led to the death of at least four people in the northwest corner of the state, where raging waters swept vehicles from the roads, according to officials in Washington, Madison and Benton counties.
Several rivers in northeast Arkansas topped flood stage, with waters spreading over mainly agricultural land. City Hall in Hardy was evacuated in anticipation of the floodwaters, as were homes along the Spring River, even though most were built on 10-foot pilings.
Roads in and out of the area were impassable due to flood waters.

--The Associated Press

A child takes a photo with her cellphone of a cow sign for Sirloin Stockade in Murray, Ky. after overnight storms lifted it from its base and tipped it over into the parking lot. Authorities in Murray are reporting thousands of customers without power after a strong storm moved through overnight. (AP Photo/The Ledger & Times, Kyser Lough)

People walk on a road in Vilonia, Ark., Tuesday, April 26, 2011, after a tornado hit the area late Monday. (AP Photo/Danny Johnston)

Record downpour Saturday could lead to GTA flooding

Grab some rain boots and an umbrella if you want to keep dry this weekend as the city can expect to get drenched by up to 40 millimetres of rain.

Environment Canada issued a special weather statement on Friday morning, warning that much of Ontario could be hit by ice pellets, freezing rain and snow on Friday afternoon.

Provincial police reported 90 collisions during freezing rain between midnight and 9 a.m. in southwestern Ontario near London. Most of the collisions were caused by speeding or driving too closely, according to police. There were no serious injuries.

But the mixed bag of precipitation skipped Toronto as the city’s temperature rose above the freezing to 2C by 10 a.m. before a Texas cold front moved over Ontario.

Icy weather could still create messy driving conditions for areas including Sarnia and London, while Toronto prepares for the possibility of flooding, according to Environment Canada senior climatologist Dave Phillips.

“In many ways we think it’s a bummer of a weekend because it’s so wet,” said Phillips. “But in many ways we’re very fortunate because it could have been heavy snowfall, it could be freezing rain.”

The thaw of what snow remains, plus the still-frozen ground combined with lots of rain could create floods in some areas of the GTA, Phillips said.

The showers will start early on Friday afternoon but will get heavier into late evening. Five to 10 mm of rain are expected by day’s end.

Saturday will be soggier with an expected 20 to 30 mm of rain. Temperatures aren’t expected to dip lower than 3C and could be as high as 9C.

Toronto is set to break the record for the most rainfall on a March 5 since 1959, when there was 16.3 mm, Phillips said.

“It will be probably be the wettest March 5, from the rain point of view,” he said.

But the thaw won’t last for long. Snow is expected to fall on Sunday when temperatures are expected to reach a high of -1 C and could dip as low -7C.

HOW TO FLOOD-PROOF YOUR HOME

-- Carys Mills, Staff Reporter

From floods to snowstorms, blame La Nina

A parked car is buried in snow following a winter storm in Toronto last week. (Darren Calabrese/THE CANADIAN PRESS FILE PHOTO)

If you think this year’s winter is a bit harsher than those in your recent memory, blame La Nina.

Environment Canada says the weather phenomenon has been wreaking havoc around the globe — and having an effect here at home.

“We’ve already had more snow this winter as we had all winter last year,” said David Phillips, senior climatologist.

La Nina, which Phillips describes as “the nasty sister of El Nino,” is the result of the cooling of the Pacific Ocean along the equator and the subsequent changing of wind patterns.

For Canada, this generally leads to colder and longer winters as systems come in from the northern air masses, although Ontario is not usually affected as much as the western provinces.

“What we see is more cold spells and a bit more snow, but it varies,” said Phillips. According to Phillips, the winter may even be a little longer than the last, with the possibility of snow into April.

“It is good for skiers, not good for people who want to save money on their home heating bills,” said Phillips.

La Nina tends to come every three to seven years; scientists are never able to predict its arrival, only what may happen once it’s here.

“It affects the weather around the globe,” said Phillips. “Some of the floods in Brazil, Sri Lanka and Australia are directly related to La Nina.”

Raging floodwaters have swamped thousands of homes and businesses in Queensland, leaving at least 25 people dead and dozens more missing since late November. Rail lines and highways have been washed away in what is shaping up to become Australia's costliest natural disaster.

The flooding follows a spate of severe natural disasters in the past year. While the most deadly was Haiti's earthquake, extreme weather also killed thousands of people across the globe, including a scorching heat wave that choked Russia in the summer and devastating floods that engulfed more than 150,000 square kilometres in Pakistan.

The effects of La Nina can last anywhere from six months to 18 months. El Nino, on the other hand, is the result of temperatures rising in Pacific Ocean along South America, and brings Canada much shorter and warmer winters like that of last year.

“What’s been unusual this year is that it went from El Nino to La Nina almost overnight,” said Phillips, explaining that there is usually a transition period of neutral ocean temperatures between the two.

With files from The Associated Press

This aerial photograph shows residential suburbs inundated as flood waters devastate much of Brisbane on Jan. 13, 2011.(TORSTEN BLACKWOOD/AFP/Getty Images)

Top 5 Australia flooding videos

Flood waters swamp the shopping centre in the city of Toowoomba. (Nicole Alayne Hammermeister//AFP/Getty Images)

A violent surge in Toowoomba, Australia, brought the overall death toll from weeks of flooding in Queensland state to 20, a sudden acceleration in a crisis that had been unfolding gradually with swollen rivers overflowing their banks and inundating towns while moving toward the ocean.

Queensland Premier Anna Bligh said there were “grave fears” for at least 18 of those missing.

The high waters headed next to Australia’s third-largest city, Brisbane, where up to 9,000 homes were expected to be swamped.

The Brisbane River overflowed its banks Tuesday and officials warned that dozens of low-lying neighbourhoods and parts of downtown could be inundated in coming days.

But nothing downstream was expected to be as fierce as the flash flood that struck Toowoomba on Monday. It was sparked by a freak storm — up to 150 millimetres fell in half an hour.

- Associated Press

Here are the Top 5 videos of Australia's flooding:

'Biblical' flooding hits eastern Australia

Flood waters swamp the shopping centre in the city of Toowoomba. Australia. (Nicole Alayne HAMMERMEISTER/AFP/Getty Images)

BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA—Greg Kowald was driving through the centre of Toowoomba when a terrifying, tsunami-like wall of water roared through the streets of the northeast Australian city.

Office windows exploded, cars careened into trees and bobbed in the churning brown water like corks. The deluge washed away bridges and sidewalks; people desperately clung to power poles to survive. Before it was over, the flash flood left at least 10 dead and 78 missing.

“The water was literally leaping, six or 10 feet into the air, through creeks and over bridges and into parks,” Kowald, a 53-year-old musician, told The Associated Press on Tuesday. “There was nowhere to escape, even if there had been warnings. There was just a sea of water about a kilometre wide.”

The violent surge in Toowoomba brought the overall death toll from weeks of flooding in Queensland state to 20, a sudden acceleration in a crisis that had been unfolding gradually with swollen rivers overflowing their banks and inundating towns while moving toward the ocean. Queensland Premier Anna Bligh said there were “grave fears” for at least 18 of those missing.

The high waters headed next to Australia’s third-largest city, Brisbane, where up to 9,000 homes were expected to be swamped. The Brisbane River overflowed its banks Tuesday and officials warned that dozens of low-lying neighbourhoods and parts of downtown could be inundated in coming days.

But nothing downstream was expected to be as fierce as the flash flood that struck Toowoomba on Monday. It was sparked by a freak storm — up to 150 millimetres fell in half an hour.

“There was water coming down everywhere in biblical proportions,” Toowoomba council member Joe Ramia told the AP.

Ramia, 63, was driving downtown when the flash flood struck. He parked his car and dashed on foot for higher ground, keeping an eye on the carnage unfolding below: Cars transformed into scrap metal as they were flung into an elevated railway line, giant metal industrial bins tossed about as if made of paper, a man clinging desperately to a power pole as the relentless tide surged around him.

Ramia watched as a rescue official pushed through the churning water and yanked the man to safety. Others, including five children, were not as lucky, and were swept to their deaths.

“You were powerless to do a thing,” said Ramia, a lifelong resident of Toowoomba. “While we can rebuild, you can’t replace people. . . . I’ve never seen anything like this.”

The raging water was strong enough to rip houses off their foundations. Leroy Shephard, who lives in the town of Grantham, east of Toowoomba, was inside his home when the flood struck.

“You could feel the whole house just pop up off its stumps, turn around, and go — for a 100 metres or something down my backyard,” Shephard told Australian Broadcasting Corp.

FLOORBOARDS ‘RIPPLE,’ ROOMS ‘JUST DISAPPEAR’

He and his family spent five hours on the house’s roof waiting for the waters to drop.

“It’s not a good feeling having the floorboards under your feet just ripple, the whole house just ripple and crack, and watching rooms just disappear,” he said.

Emergency services officers plucked more than 40 people from houses isolated overnight by the torrent that hit the Lockyer Valley, and thousands were being evacuated. In one small community in the path of the floodwaters, Forest Hill, the entire population of about 300 was being airlifted to safety in military helicopters, Bligh said.

Search and rescue efforts were hampered by more driving rain, though the bad weather was easing and Bligh said the search would get easier Wednesday.

Brisbane Mayor Campbell Newman said authorities were preparing for flooding affecting about 15,000 people in 80 suburbs.

The city is protected by a large dam built upstream after floods devastated downtown in 1974. But the reservoir was full, and officials had no choice but to release water that would cause low-level flooding in the city, Newman said. The alternative was a much worse torrent.

Steph Stewardson, a Brisbane graphic designer, said there was an exodus in a downtown area around lunchtime Tuesday when the river that goes through the city broke its banks. Stewardson, 40, hopped in her car and crossed the swollen river to collect her dog Boo from daycare while waters started covering the boardwalk stretching along its banks.

Stewardson took shelter in her house, and plans to stay there — for now.

“I’m about 800 metres from the river on a hill, so I think it’s going to be OK,” she told the AP.

Queensland has been in the grip of its worst flooding for more than two weeks, after tropical downpours covered an area the size of France and Germany combined. Entire towns have been swamped, more than 200,000 people affected, and the coal industry and farming have virtually shut down.

“The power of nature can still be a truly frightening power and we’ve seen that on display in this country,” Prime Minister Julia Gillard said.

Police Commissioner Bob Atkinson described the events Monday as “an inland instant tsunami.”

Forecasters said more flash floods could occur through the week.

Deputy Police Commissioner Ian Stewart said rescue efforts were concentrated on towns between Toowoomba and Brisbane, including hardest-hit Murphy’s Creek and Grantham, where about 30 people sought shelter in a school isolated by the floodwaters.

The floods reached a second state Tuesday, with about 4,500 people stranded by high waters in bordering New South Wales, officials said, though the situation was not yet as dire as in Queensland.

Bligh said last week the cost of the floods could be as high as $5 billion, the latest figure available.

--The Associated Press

This photo taken on Jan. 10, 2011 shows damage caused by flash flooding in the Queensland town of Toowoomba. (ALICIA MORRISON/AFP/Getty Images)

An abandoned four-wheel-drive sits in a flooded street on Jan. 11, 2011 in Oakey, Australia. (Dan Proud Photography/Getty Images)

Storm causes hillside collapse, flooding in California

Rain flooded lanes near the intersection of Warner Avenue and Pacific Coast Highway in Huntington Beach, California, but the highway remained open on Tuesday, Dec. 21, 2010.

A powerful storm dumped more rain on already waterlogged Southern California on Wednesday, washing hillsides onto highways, endangering houses in canyons and forcing rescuers to pluck dozens of motorists from flooded streets.

The storm was expected to ease as it moved eastward. Floodwaters washed away homes in Arizona, and inundated parts of Nevada and Utah.

The low-pressure system could be in New Mexico by Thursday and could reach the Gulf Coast by Saturday with some rain, but not the deluge that hit Southern California, forecasters said.

In Southern California, the burst of heavy rain in the morning left streets flooded and caused minor mudslides. The threat, however, of larger mudslides could last for weeks in the suburban Los Angeles canyon hillsides laid bare by wildfires.

"The ground is so saturated it could move at any time," said Bob Spencer, spokesman for the Los Angeles County Department of Public Works.

Spencer added that catch basins designed to hold a landslide's uprooted trees and other debris before it can wash down onto homes appeared to have plenty of capacity.

Heavy rains early Wednesday caused a hillside to collapse on part of a busy Interstate 10 transition road about 30 miles outside Los Angeles.

In eastern Orange County, 25 to 30 people were evacuated from their homes in Silverado Canyon. The houses were threatened by rolling boulders and debris flow. The canyon is on the edge of the Cleveland National Forest that burned in a 1997 wildfire.

Silverado Creek was swollen with muddy brown water and roads were choked with mud and uprooted trees.

Orange County Fire Authority Capt. Larry Kurtz said firefighters walked residents to a church and searched deeper in the canyon for remote homes. "If we have any more rain, there are people who just can't get out," Kurtz said.

Paul Wright, whose best friend died in an Orange County mudslide in 1997, said he was awakened by the sound of rolling boulders at 3 a.m. and hurried to get his family out of his home.

"There's huge, big boulders, 'Boom! Boom!,'" he said. "I lost my house in the Laguna mudslide, so I'm erring on the side of caution."

Wright and his dog, Joe, waited outside a grocery store to be evacuated. Wright said he hoped to join his wife and two young children who already fled to a nearby church.

Some residents refused to leave.

Rick Tallant said he has lived in the canyon for nine years and planned to wait out the rain at his home.

"I didn't leave during the fire three years ago and I'm not going to leave now just because it's wet," he said. "I'm probably just going to go home and sit and stay dry."

In the towns of Laguna Beach and adjoining Laguna Woods, rescuers plucked more than 30 drivers, pedestrians and people stuck in their homes as mud and stormwater poured down steep hillsides.

"There's mud and rocks and hillside collapses," Laguna Beach police Lt. Jason Kravetz said. "It was too much (rain), too quick."

One man was rescued from his house after a mudslide pushed in one of the walls, he said.

About a square mile of Laguna Beach, including downtown, was closed as up to 4 feet of water rolled down the streets from Laguna Creek. The water later receded but left an mushy carpet of mud.

Officials on Tuesday ordered evacuation of 232 homes in La Canada Flintridge and La Crescenta, suburbs of Los Angeles below steep hillsides that burned in 2009 and where mudslides inundated homes and backyards in February.

The area is where the Station Fire charred 250 square miles above suburbs tucked below the San Gabriel Mountains.

Olivia Brown, 45, left her Paradise Valley home in the La Canada Flintridge area around midnight.

"I'm worried about a rock coming down on the house," Brown said at a Red Cross shelter. "My husband stayed home with two of our dogs. He had to be a man, you know, and hold down the fort. When he's nervous, it makes me nervous. I had to go."

Brown also was afraid that if she stayed home there might be road closures that would prevent her from visiting her daughter, who gave birth to her first grandchild at a hospital on Tuesday evening.

"Had it been the 1960s or 1970s, I guess we would have named him Raindrops or Stormy," she joked. "He's got a regular name."

"We'll be bringing home a baby for Christmas. Hopefully, we'll be back by then," she added.

As the "Pineapple Express" system swept Pacific Ocean moisture across the southwestern U.S., Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency in six counties.

However, the storm was moving eastward out of California and the steady downpour that continued Wednesday morning was expected to turn patchy by afternoon, with fierce but brief squalls, National Weather Service meteorologist Tina Stall said.

Flood warnings and emergency declarations were in place in parts of Utah, Nevada and Arizona.

Rushing water ripped through the northwestern Arizona community of Beaver Dam on Tuesday, sweeping away five vacant houses near a normally dry wash. Three more homes were "teetering" Wednesday on the edge of a flooded golf course, officials said.

A man in his 70s collapsed from an apparent heart attack when flooding reached his home while friends tried to protect it with sandbags, authorities said. The man was taken to a hospital but his condition wasn't immediately available.

About 60 miles away, evacuation orders for the entire town of Rockville, Utah — population 247 — were lifted after a dam feared close to breaking was declared safe. Nearby Zion National Park also was evacuated and shut down.

In southern Nevada, a state of emergency was ordered after rain-swollen creeks closed some roads in the Las Vegas area and snow disrupted electricity to about 300 customers on nearby Mount Charleston.

Storm-hit Southern California braces for more rain

Vehicles dodge mud and standing water on Mulholland Highway near Skyline Drive on Dec. 19, 2010, as heavy rain continued to fall most of the day in Los Angeles. (Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times/MCT)

LOS ANGELES—A storm walloped parts of Southern California with nearly 180 millimetres of rain and spawned minor flooding and mudslides, but forecasters warn the bad weather’s real impact may be yet to come.

Another 77 millimetres of rain expected across the region by Wednesday will hit already saturated hillsides, increasing the possibility of mudslides and flash floods, said Stuart Seto of the National Weather Service.

The relentless rains that pounded Southern California through the weekend also caused numerous traffic accidents, downed trees and forced the cancellation of several horse races.

The Pacific Coast HIGHWAY between Malibu and Oxnard was closed Sunday night because of a rock and mud slide. No one was hurt. It was unclear when the scenic stretch of highway, some 65 kilometres west of downtown Los Angeles, would reopen.

The weather service said rainfall accumulation could reach 500 millimetres in some isolated locations by Wednesday, when the first phase of the storm is expected to pass. After a brief respite, it is forecast to return late Christmas Day.

The system hit the state after a large storm front moving out of the Gulf of Alaska met with subtropical, moist air coming across the Pacific Ocean.

In Kern County, officials declared an emergency after a second day of intense rains, a move that provides responders with faster access to country resources. The Bakersfield Californian reported that the rains left many neighbourhoods around the county dealing with high water. Some roads were closed and some homeowners stacked sandbags in hopes of staying dry.

The Los Angeles area, including downtown, Hollywood and the San Fernando Valley, also received heavy rainfall.

The Santa Maria River briefly overran its banks Sunday and caused flooding in Guadeloupe in Santa Barbara County, forcing an underdetermined number of people to leave their homes, fire officials said. The Santa Maria Times reported that the high waters began receding in the evening.

A flash-flood warning was in effect for some areas, particularly mountain areas still scarred by recent wildfires, while flood warnings or flood advisories were issued for most of the region.

Residents of La Canada Flintridge were among those keeping a wary eye on the rain. More than 40 homes in the hillside city just north of Los Angeles were damaged or destroyed by a mudslide in February.

“We are holding up,” said resident Lien Yang, who added he was warned to be prepared to evacuate. “It’s coming down steady but not pouring. Therefore it doesn’t cause a mud flow or flooding or anything like that. Hopefully, it’s winding down and we’ll have no threat this time.”

One of his neighbours, Tom Smith, spent part of Sunday afternoon placing sandbags in front of his house.

The rain triggered more than 60 accidents throughout the Los Angeles area, the California Highway Patrol reported.

-- The Associated Press

Manitoba First Nation faces flood threat from ice jam

PELICAN RAPIDS, Man.—A state of emergency has been declared on a Manitoba First Nation where residents are sandbagging homes in the snow and cold to prevent flooding from an ice-jammed river.

Water that's overflowed the banks in areas along the Shoal River is threatening houses on the nearby Sapotaweyak Cree Nation, about 600 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg.

Hilda Holmstrom, the mayor of neighbouring Pelican Rapids, says a bridge that links the two communities and provides the reserve's only connection to outside roads is also being threatened.

As a precaution, a number of band members with health conditions have been moved out to stay with family or friends in Pelican Rapids, or in a local school gymnasium.

Holmstrom says despite a snowstorm, residents have been sandbagging homes and other buildings since the river started rising early Thursday morning.

Provincial emergency measures organization officials are expected soon in Pelican Rapids to assess the flood threat.

Flooding in Belgium kills two

People look at a flooded street in Sint-Pieters Leeuw, near Brussels, November 15, 2010. Several rivers burst their banks due to heavy rain, flooding several towns and villages in Belgium. (Yves Herman/REUTERS)