The storm may have cost more lives, including three men missing off the coast in Oregon. Their 50-foot boat was found on Friday and the body of one man was found on Saturday washed ashore 50 miles away.

Oregon State Police spokesman Gregg Hastings said it is not known if the man had been aboard the boat.

Harper said the storm's death toll in Washington may rise from the four deaths reported on Friday. Local media reports said two more deaths were linked to the storm but Harper said the state's official count remained at four.

Sunday night's expected storm would be the fourth in a week for the Pacific Northwest, which also had record-breaking rains in November.

Winds reported up to 90 mph (144 kph) were reported in parts of Washington during the windstorm that began Thursday night. Winds in Seattle hit 69 mph (110 kph).

More than 1 million were without power in Washington, Oregon and near Vancouver at the height of the storm. Powerful winds toppling power lines were the main reasons for the record outages, said Grant Ringel, spokesman for Puget Sound Energy.

On Thursday and Friday, rescue efforts to find the three lost hikers were suspended due to high winds and blowing snow.

About 80 rescuers, including 50 on the mountain, will resume their search on Sunday for three men who began ascending the 11,235-foot Mount Hood on December 7. Their last known position was about 1,000 feet below the summit, based on a signal from a cellular telephone early Tuesday morning.

Sgt. Gary Tiffany from the Hood River County Sheriff's Department said it is hoped that the men had built a snowcave to protect themselves from temperatures to minus 30 degrees Fahrenheit adjusted for the chill of high winds.

"We know they took food and water and stoves with them," Tiffany said. "We're still optimistic."

The men are experienced hikers, Tiffany said. Two of the missing men are from Dallas, Brian Hall, 38, and Kelly James, 48, and one, Jerry Cooke, 36, is from Brooklyn, New York.

Puget Sound Energy on Saturday afternoon had 380,000 customers without service. About 70,000 customers of British Columbia Hydro were without power Saturday afternoon. Seattle City Light had about 40,000 outages.

Rescuers were coming off the mountain Sunday evening and planned to resume the search for the two others Monday, authorities said.

"We remain hopeful," said Capt. Mike Braibish, spokesman for the Oregon National Guard. "We are going to still collect information and pursue the rescue of the two other climbers."

Teams of climbers and a helicopter will work Monday to remove the body from the 11,239-foot mountain, said Marc Smith, also a spokesman for the Hood River Sheriff's Office.

Near the first snow cave, helicopters had spotted rope that had been intentionally laid out in a Y-shape, which climbers often use to indicate their location. There was also an ice spike and footprints, said Sgt. Gerry Tiffany, spokesman for the Hood River County Sheriff's Office.

The footprints appeared to head up the mountain toward the summit, but were blown out by the wind at higher points, Tiffany said.

Searchers dug through the first cave, about 300 feet below the summit, to ensure no one was there and took the equipment, which will be examined for clues.

Weather conditions have been harsh since the three were reporting missing eight days ago, with heavy snow fall and wind gusts of up to 100 mph. The snow stopped Saturday, but wind up to 50 mph blew the fresh snow, hampering visibility. Skies were blue Sunday, the wind was still, and temperatures at the summit were reported near zero degrees.

There has been no communication from Kelly James, 48, of Dallas, 37-year-old Brian Hall of Dallas, or 36-year-old Jerry "Nikko" Cooke of New York City since Dec. 10, when James used his cell phone to call his family. He told them he was sheltering in a snow cave while his companions started back down the mountain, apparently to get help for him.

The last clue to their whereabouts was a brief signal returned from James' cell phone Tuesday.

Officials predicted it might be days before power is restored in some of the hardest-hit areas, including Cougar Mountain in Bellevue, rural Woodinville, outlying parts of North Bend, Snoqualmie, Duvall, Carnation and Skykomish in East King County and some South King County neighborhoods.

Retailers in the region reported running out of fire logs and batteries, and wood for burning was in short supply. Long lines continued at gas stations.

While some churches were closed, others held limited services Sunday, minus heat and power.

Kirkland police released more details Sunday on a 26-year-old man believed to have died from carbon-monoxide poisoning. The man was discovered Saturday morning in a rear bedroom of a home in the 10500 block of Northeast 124th Street by his landlord, who called 911.

Emergency services found the house "closed up" and a portable gas generator in the living room, which had been powering a bedroom heater and some other appliances. The generator was switched on but had run out of gasoline by the time the man was found.

The man's name was not released, pending notification of his family.

In addition to the two persons believed to have died from carbon-monoxide poisoning, at least six others have perished since Thursday. A Gig Harbor man died Sunday when he was electrocuted by a downed power line. The man was walking his dog and likely didn't notice the power line, which was hidden in a tree that had fallen, said Pierce County Sheriff's spokesman Ed Troyer. The man, believed to be a white male in his mid-30s, hasn't been identified.

Steven Thielen, 48, of Spanaway, died Saturday when a candle he was using for light apparently ignited a fire, authorities said. Harold Fox, 47, of Eatonville, and 37-year-old Bonnie Bacus of Roy, died in separate car accidents as the storm blew in on Thursday. That same night, in McCleary, Grays Harbor County, a 28-year-old Anacortes man died when a treetop snapped and crashed into the mobile home where he slept. And in Seattle, Kate Fleming, 41, drowned in the basement of her Madison Valley home when a surge of stormwater slammed into the house.

As the power outages drag on, one Bellevue resident, Katy Freiberg, said the idea of spending the days before Christmas in a shelter with her three children - ages 9, 8 and 3 - is unsettling. But the four had used an outdoor barbecue grill for cooking and warmth since power at their home went out Thursday night.

"We were putting wood in the grill to cook and stay warm; we were basically living outside," Freiberg said as the four down to a lunch of soup and sandwiches. "We woke up this morning and it was so very cold, I said, 'Kids, we just can't do this anymore. We need to get warm.' "

On Sunday, desperate for a shower, clean clothes and a warm meal, they drove to the North Bellevue Community Center.

While some sought refuge in emergency shelters, thousands more were choosing to ride out the cold and darkness in their homes. Others sought treatment for carbon-monoxide poisoning and hypothermia. Area hospitals also reported storm-related injuries, including nasty cuts from chain saws.

John L. Chelminiak, the deputy mayor of Bellevue, was volunteering at the Bellevue Community Center. He said 275 people had come through the shelter, located on 148th Avenue Southeast, since late Thursday.

"It's getting increasingly tough for many people to stay in their homes," Chelminiak said.

Margaret Little, who works as a caregiver in the Bellevue area, said she worries that the region's most fragile residents - those who most need shelter - are not seeking it out.

"A lot of people are stuck in the dark," she said.

Little pointed out that people living alone without power cannot hear news reports about where to go or whom to call for help. Some elderly and frail people don't have their own transportation to get to emergency shelters, she added.

"A lot of people, their families may be trying to reach them by telephone - when they don't get an answer they assume they went elsewhere." But without power, she pointed out, some phones don't work.

Many nursing homes and retirement centers still without power sought alternative shelter for their residents.

At Hutchison House Apartments in Issaquah, about 95 of the 120 residents remained in their apartments Sunday night, bundled up in heavy clothing and blankets.

None of the independent-living apartments had heat or lights, although a generator provided by authorities was keeping shared living space warm during the day.

The apartment home's generator broke down on Friday, leaving the complex without heat for about five hours.

Ada Wolf, the apartments' assistant manager, said one elderly woman slipped in the dark while trying to open her apartment door. The 82-year-old woman, who has since left to stay with a community volunteer, was checked out by emergency workers and found to be OK.

Another resident, Wanda Peck, 76, braved two nights in her apartment before leaving by taxi to stay with her son in Tacoma.

"On the second morning when I woke up, and it was dark and cold, it was really upsetting," Peck said.

Although residents survived on little but crackers and pop at first, by the weekend community volunteers brought in lasagna and pots of soup, Wolf said.

Wolf said the apartment managers have been out of town and are due back today.

In the Seattle area, pockets of homes still remained without power. At the Bitter Lake Community Center, where a shelter was set up, Rebecca Pennington, 25, and 15-month-old Aiden arrived about 10 a.m. Sunday. Pennington said she wanted to take a shower and try to regroup.

Pennington, her husband and their son had braved the cold in their Mountlake Terrace apartment, using a propane grill to boil water for coffee.

The wood they were burning in the fireplace to stay warm ran out on Saturday night, and Pennington decided to leave on Sunday after she said the apartment became colder than outside.

"We don't have any relatives here; we don't know anyone," said Pennington. Her family moved here from North Carolina in May, she said.

As she spoke about what to do next, Ethel Whelan approached, offering the family shelter in one of two homes she owns.

"We came during the heat wave, then there was the flood and the snow and the ice, and now this," Pennington said.

"This has the potential to be the worst case of carbon-monoxide poisoning in the country," Hampson said.

The region's worst windstorm in more than a decade struck on Thursday, knocking out power to more than 1.5 million homes and businesses.

Puget Sound Energy, the state's largest private utility, listed about 280,000 customers still without power Sunday, with Seattle City Light reporting 21,000 still blacked out and Snohomish County Public Utility District, north of Seattle, said it had restored service to all but 9,000 customers.

Gov. Chris Gregoire expanded an earlier disaster proclamation to cover the entire state, freeing counties to spend money necessary to help victims. The state National Guard was also mobilized to help get fuel and supplies to hard-hit areas.

In northern Nevada, residents were clearing away snow and ice Sunday from a storm a day earlier. There were more than 100 crashes, and two Reno children were injured Sunday after sledding down a hillside and colliding with a pickup, police said.

"I think we've already lost tens of thousands of animals when you consider how widespread the fires are," she told AFP.

The wildfires, caused by lightning strikes in some areas and arson in others, have raged in the southern states of Victoria and Tasmania as well as New South Wales and Western Australia for two weeks.

Victoria is the worst affected, with the scorched area stretching over more than 5,000 square kilometres (2,000 square miles), equivalent to twice the size of Luxembourg.

Fernee said volunteers visiting Victorian firegrounds this weekend were expecting to see "Pompeii-like" scenes of burned and charred animal remains.

"It's very grim. A lot of what we come across are animals we can't even recognise. It's just a pile of ashes," she said.

"It's rare that we find something we can help. Mostly we come across dead animals that are badly burned that we have to euthanise."

While koala, kangaroo and wallaby populations are expected to have been hit, smaller animals such as possums, bats, birds, lizards and snakes are thought to have perished in greater numbers because they are generally too slow to outrun a fire, she said.

Kevin O'Loughlin, head of a Melbourne-based national bushfire research centre, said assessing the specific damage could take years.

"But fires of this scale are disastrous environmentally," he told AFP.

"They really do cause a terrible lot of damage because of the area that they burn and the ferocity of the burn."

While some Australian plants were able to thrive on fire, with the flames opening seedpods, ecosystems would take years to recover from gigantic blazes which left nothing behind, he said.

Residents of fire ravaged areas could expect plants and wildlife to be incinerated, while water supplies could be tainted by ash, he said.

Air pollution has also been significant, with the southern city of Melbourne shrouded in such thick smoke over the past week that fire alarms have been detonated inside city buildings.

Stuart McConnell, director of science and technology at Victoria's Environment Protection Agency, said air pollution was five to 10 times worse than normal because of the fires.

"This is certainly the worst example of this (type of pollution) that we've seen," he said.

Hundreds of firefighters are battling to contain the blazes, but officials expect those in Victoria and Tasmania to continue to burn for weeks as they churn through rugged and largely inaccessible bush.

Geoff Law, a campaigner with the Wilderness Society in Tasmania, says the fires in the island state are contained to state forests and private land and are not threatening national parks.

"But there's still birds being incinerated and kangaroos and wallabies getting scorched and potentially dying of burns as well as all the smoke," he told AFP.

Ultimately, the extent of the damage would depend on the severity of the fires, he said.

"Where there's been a firestorm or fireball most of the trees will be killed. There will be significant patches where everything is dead.

"But there will be regeneration. But if the frequency is too great then you do get a change in vegetation -- from taller forest to something a bit more scrubby.

"We hope that for most of the areas that have been burned, that it hasn't been too intense."

But don't worry; the world is aware of the problem and working on change. Over 150 nations gathered recently in Nairobi to talk about the climate crisis and the U.S., the largest contributor to global warming said via representative Harlan Watson: "I do not see any change in our policy." The "policy" in question is to effectively do nothing. In fact, he added, "We feel very comfortable."

OK, so not everyone is doing something about the problem. Here in the U.S. we are doing something worse than nothing -- we are actively working in the wrong direction.

Never has this been more apparent than in Texas where utility giant TXU Corp. is seeking $11 billion to build 11 new coal-fired power plants in the state.

If these plants are built, TXU will become the country's largest corporate emitter of greenhouse gases. To put this in perspective, TXU would be contributing more greenhouse gas emissions than a combined 21 states and more than entire countries, such as New Zealand, Ireland, Denmark, and Sweden. They will also be negating all of the emissions that Japan had planned to cut and 80 percent of the U.K.'s pledged reduction.

Despite the fact that 79 percent of Texans are in favor of renewable energy and just six percent are in favor of more coal production, TXU's project is being fast-tracked by Gov. Perry (who received more than $80,000 in campaign contributions for TXU interests). By trying to quickly push through the permitting process, Perry will be allowing the state to skip the normally mandated period where alternative energy sources would be considered. But don't worry, it's not like there's a lot of wind or sun in Texas or anything.

Even with Perry's best efforts on behalf of polluting energy, there is still a lot to be done to stop the project: just ask the ever-vigilant folks at Rainforest Action Network (RAN).

Sure, Texas might not be in your backyard, but with an international problem like global warming, all of our backyards just got a whole lot bigger.

Tara Lohan is a managing editor at AlterNet.

The existing computer model deviates even more from the actual observations built into the new estimates included in a draft of the next report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, due to be released in February 2007.

The draft report says newer climate models now suggest a rise only half as great as projected in the previous IPCC report. But that draft may be revised before its release to reflect the new research that suggests the rise will be greater than the IPCC's previous estimate, Rahmstorf told New Scientist.
Capital cities

For a given amount of warming, Rahmstorf says, the rise in sea level "could well be twice as much as was so far expected, based on the last IPCC report".

At the top of the range of possible temperature rises estimated by the last IPCC report, the rise could be as great as 140 centimetres by 2100. That would be bad new for cities like London and New York, which lie close to sea level, and would leave them facing an increased risk of devastating storm surges. Even the lowest predicted temperature rises would cause a 50 cm rise, Rahmstorf says.

The predictions in the previous IPCC report - its third - ranged from 9 cm to 88 cm by 2100, and the initial draft of the next report was to cut those figures in half. But Rahmstorf, who is a lead author of the paleoclimate section of the upcoming report, says he hopes his new results will be incorporated before IPCC 4 is officially released in February 2007.
Search for meaning

Rahmstorf says there are so many possible factors and feedback mechanisms that affect sea level that it is almost impossible to derive a meaningful model of future rises from purely physical modelling. Instead, he uses a method similar to that used for calculating tide tables.

The method relies on actual observations of past changes in sea level, and their correlation with temperature changes, to derive an estimate of the amount of increase expected for a given temperature change.

Rahmstorf acknowledges that the simple linear extrapolation derived using the new semi-empirical method will not hold good over a timescale of millennia, but he argues that it is a good approximation for the next century. However, the strongest conclusion of the new work, he says, is that uncertainties in sea level rise predictions are far greater than expected.

"We should not take this risk," Rahmstorf says. "We should start with very effective emission reduction measures. The global temperature increase should be kept to under 2°C."

"We still have some work to do to improve our comprehensive physical models, especially for ice sheets," says Richard Alley, at Penn State University, who specialises in ice sheets and glaciers. "But given the difficulties with modelling ice sheets etc., Rahmstorf's approach is clever and useful."

Journal reference: Science (DOI: 10.1126/science.1135456)