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US hit by widespread fires and flooding

Mark Jones talks on his cellphone in his boat as he prepares to inspect the damage to his house after heavy rains caused the Missouri River to flood on Wednesday in Levasy, Missouri. PHOTO: AFP

Nature's fury made life miserable from one end of the US to the other, with people forced out of their homes by wildfires near both coasts and the Canadian border and by major flooding in the Midwest.

In southern Georgia a three-week-old fire became the state's biggest in five decades after charring 433km2 of forest and swamp.

Smoke-filled air created a burning smell and a dusting of ashes that coated cars and buildings through much of Florida and southeastern Georgia. The haze over most of Florida closed several highways and sent people with breathing problems indoors.

The flooding was produced by the drenching weekend thunderstorms across the Plains states that also devastated Greensburg, Kansas. In addition to 11 tornado deaths, two drowning deaths were blamed on the storms, one each in Oklahoma and Kansas.

High water had poured over the tops of at least 20 levees along the Missouri River and other streams, authorities said on Wednesday.

Missouri National Guard troops were helping. And Highway Patrol troopers were working 24-hour shifts near Big Lake, a village town of about 150 permanent residents in the state's northwest corner, which was inundated by five levee breaks along the Missouri River and four smaller ones on other streams, said patrol Lieutenant John Hotz.

In Missouri's Jackson County, authorities evacuated 300 to 400 residents on Wednesday. At least a dozen homes were partially under water from the Missouri River, a dispatcher said.

On the West Coast, in view of many Los Angeles residents, a blaze had covered more than 324 hectares in the city's sprawling Griffith Park behind the iconic Griffith Observatory.

The danger to homes south of the park had eased on Wednesday and many of the hundreds of residents evacuated overnight were allowed to return. However, fire officials warned that conditions could change.

At least 30 companies of firefighters were to remain in case the 330-hectare blaze came back to life.

In northern Florida a wildfire had forced the evacuation of about 250 homes, said Annaleasa Winter, a state forestry spokeswoman. That fire had blackened up to 7,285 hectares and was 35 percent contained on Wednesday night.

Florida Governor Charlie Crist said the state had more than 220 active fires on Wednesday.

In Georgia officials issued a mandatory evacuation on Wednesday for an area that they said by yesterday may be in the path of a 43,302-hectare blaze in the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, the largest recorded blaze since state record-keeping began in 1957.

Elsewhere, a wildfire near the Canadian border in northeastern Minnesota had destroyed 45 buildings and firefighters said it was just 5 percent contained.

More than 100 people had been removed from their homes in the path of the fire.
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