Officials are keeping a close eye on both the rivers and the sky this week, as they track several weather systems predicted to bring rain and more flood worries to western Montana.
The National Weather Service issued flood watches for Missoula and Ravalli counties Monday afternoon in anticipation of overnight rainshowers.
Severe flooding in eastern Montana caused road closures and evacuations as the week began, prompting Gov. Brian Schweitzer to issue a statewide flood emergency declaration. Missoula, Ravalli, Sanders, Lincoln, Glacier and Lake counties were all included in the declaration.
The Weather Service issued a flood warning for the Clark Fork River above Missoula as well. The river rose to 9.3 feet Monday and is forecast to reach its 10-foot flood stage by Tuesday morning.
"The area that looks like it will go to flood probably quicker than anything is the Clark Fork River in Missoula. How fast and how much it rises will depend on how much precipitation falls. This forecast could change as we go into the week," said Ray Nickless, hydrologist for the Weather Service.
Earth Changes
© Reuters, The Starphoenix
Sandbags surround farm buildings as water from a deliberate breach of a dike on the Assiniboine River approaches near Newton, Man. Swollen with water from the Portage Diversion and driven by a gale, Lake Manitoba reared up on Monday and slammed against the shores in cabin country.
Sandbags surround farm buildings as water from a deliberate breach of a dike on the Assiniboine River approaches near Newton, Man. Swollen with water from the Portage Diversion and driven by a gale, Lake Manitoba reared up on Monday and slammed against the shores in cabin country.
Thirty homes in Delta Beach were placed under voluntary evacuation, hours after a blustery north wind sent water crashing against homes, surging over some of the community's roads and swamping three cabins on its southern edge.
The Rural Municipality of Portage la Prairie was monitoring the situation "hour by hour," an official on the scene said, in case a mandatory evacuation order was needed.
But while some cottagers and full-time residents were spotted driving away, cars packed with clothes, other residents along a mucky stretch road stayed, betting that the roads out would stay passable.
With most sandbags in place, all they could do was watch the waves break and wonder what might happen next to the lake that is, suddenly, a threat.
© Mike Gullett/AP Photo
Mary Womack, right, reacts to the news that a renter who lived in her house had been found and taken to the hospital, May 23, 2011.
Mary Womack, right, reacts to the news that a renter who lived in her house had been found and taken to the hospital, May 23, 2011.
"It was just one big wall," he said of the nearly mile-wide tornado. "You couldn't see a funnel. It was just so massive."
His story of survival is just one of many beginning to emerge after the twister cut a six-mile-wide path through Joplin on Sunday, causing widespread destruction and killing 117 people -- the most from one storm in 60 years.
© Billings Gazette, Paul Ruhter/AP
A man walks across South Canal Road in Huntley, Mont. on Sunday, May 22, 2011 as flood water from Pryor Creek inundates a neighborhood and spills over into a canal. Widespead flooding also closed Interstate 90 from Hardin, Mont. to Ranchester, Wyo.
A man walks across South Canal Road in Huntley, Mont. on Sunday, May 22, 2011 as flood water from Pryor Creek inundates a neighborhood and spills over into a canal. Widespead flooding also closed Interstate 90 from Hardin, Mont. to Ranchester, Wyo.
Gov. Brian Schweitzer declared a statewide emergency as broad areas of southeastern Montana remained underwater.
Rural communities in southeastern Montana, including the Crow Reservation, were hardest hit, authorities said.
In Carbon County, 84-year-old Betty Kebschull was killed after she was caught in rising waters from an unnamed creek.
Kebschull was swept a short distance downstream from her house near Boyd, where authorities found her body Saturday, Deputy Coroner Ben Mahoney said. A Monday autopsy confirmed she drowned.
In Yellowstone County, authorities were searching for a man reported missing after a backhoe he was operating tipped into Pryor Creek.
© AccuWeather
Roads, rail, air and ferry services were all affected as winds gusting 100mph were recorded in central Scotland.
© Vanessa Monsisvais / El Paso Times
Lower Valley farmer Kevin Ivey pulls on a broken branch of a pecan tree
Lower Valley farmer Kevin Ivey pulls on a broken branch of a pecan tree
As of today, soon just stretched out a little further.
The Greater El Paso area today will hit a record-breaking 110 consecutive days without a trace of rain. According to the National Weather Service office in Santa Teresa, the old record was 109 days in 2002.
The figure was recorded by the Japan Coast Guard which maintains underwater geodetic equipment along the fault responsible for the giant tremor. An upwards movement of 3m (10ft) was registered by the same instrument. The data underlines once again the colossal nature of the Magnitude 9.0 quake and its associated tsunami.
The scale is almost double that estimated only from the terrestrial data. Results show how important offshore data are to know where and to what extent the rupture occurred on the plate boundary.
The deaths, the largest number of casualties from lightning in a single day, occurred on Monday. Ten people died in northwestern Chapainawabganj district.
Rainstorms ahead of the monsoon season starting in May or June often bring electric storms that kill residents and damage crops.
As death toll in tornado-ripped city hits 117, people brace for possible second punch from new storm system. Searches continue ahead of new storms; 1,500 people unaccounted for
Joplin, Missouri - As rescue crews in this city made their way through the debris of thousands of homes and concrete slabs where large stores once stood, the death toll crept higher and a nursing home operator reported that at least 11 of the fatalities were at its premises.
"What used to be a building was nothing more than a pile of rubble," said Bill Mitchell, who operated Greenbriar on the city's south side. Ten victims were residents and the 11th was a staff member, he added. One person remains unaccounted for.
"One of the little old men from the nursing home was standing in the middle of the street when we came out of the house," neighbor Sandy Conlee told the Joplin Globe in describing the aftermath. "He had blood all over his head. He was in shock."
Joplin, Missouri - As rescue crews in this city made their way through the debris of thousands of homes and concrete slabs where large stores once stood, the death toll crept higher and a nursing home operator reported that at least 11 of the fatalities were at its premises.
"What used to be a building was nothing more than a pile of rubble," said Bill Mitchell, who operated Greenbriar on the city's south side. Ten victims were residents and the 11th was a staff member, he added. One person remains unaccounted for.
"One of the little old men from the nursing home was standing in the middle of the street when we came out of the house," neighbor Sandy Conlee told the Joplin Globe in describing the aftermath. "He had blood all over his head. He was in shock."
