Most of Central Florida was under severe weather alerts, Saturday night.

The National Weather Service in Melbourne issued a series of severe-thunderstorms and tornado warnings covering much of Central Florida.

Firefighters in Volusia County welcomed the rains but were less happy to see the heavy lighting that came with the rain.

According to fire officials about 25 fires started, Saturday, but were quickly contained.

At Orlando International Airport, departing and arriving fights were experiencing delays of 15 minutes or less, according to an airport spokeswoman.

Beijing - More than 5 million people have been displaced or otherwise affected by flooding in eastern China that is also pushing up food prices, state media reported Sunday


Torrential rains have left huge areas of Hubei and Zhejiang provinces under water, with more than 1 million acres of farmland inundated, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

Almost 1,000 businesses have been forced to suspend operations and 5.7 million people have had their lives disrupted, Xinhua said in a brief report. More than 7,000 homes collapsed or were otherwise damaged and direct financial damage was estimated at almost 6 billion yuan.

The National Weather Service has issued a tornado warning for parts of Florida's Orange County, including Orlando.
From the National Weather Service: ...A TORNADO WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 800 PM EDT FOR CENTRAL ORANGE COUNTY...

AT 730 PM EDT...NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE METEOROLOGISTS CONTINUED TO DETECT A TORNADO. THIS TORNADO WAS LOCATED NEAR WEDGEFIELD...OR 7 MILES SOUTH OF BITHLO...MOVING SOUTHEAST AT 15 MPH.

Beijing - Floods and lightning killed at least eight people as heavy rains pounded southern China, destroying homes and blocking roads, official media said Saturday.

Flooding from this month's seasonal rains has already forced hundreds of thousands of people from their homes and left more than 170 dead or missing.

Two people died in the southern province of Guizhou after being struck by lightning, the official Xinhua News Agency said. Two others died after being washed away by floods Friday evening. Xinhua said four other people died but did not provide details.

The Ministry of Civil Affairs said Friday that flooding and rains have killed 25 people, left 25 missing and forced about 671,200 from their homes since Monday.

Xinhua did not say whether the most recent fatalities were included in the 25.

The torrential rains are forecast to continue through the weekend.

Landslides crushed parts of a railway line in southwestern China on Thursday evening, stranding 5,000 passengers on four trains, railway officials said.

About 1,200 workers are continuing to clear tracks and make repairs along the Chengdu-Kunming railway line, which links the capitals of Sichuan and Yunnan provinces, Xinhua said.

Huntsville - The historic wave of tornadoes that struck the state on April 27 grew in number yet again on Thursday.

The National Weather Service office in Huntsville added four new tornado tracks, all in Marshall County, to raise the total to 37 separate tornadoes in North Alabama.

The Huntsville office on Friday also upgraded the deadly EF-4 that struck DeKalb County, raising the estimates to an EF-5. That's the most powerful level on the Enhanced Fujita scale, indicating winds exceeding 200 mph. The only other EF-5 on April 27 ran along the ground from Hackleburg to Madison County.

The National Weather Service office in Birmingham has also identified 30 tornadoes on April 27. Six of those tornadoes continued into North Alabama and were surveyed by both offices.

Residents grew nervous Saturday evening when strong winds blew through the region, bringing bad memories of the April 16 tornado.

The National Weather Service in Raleigh said the storms contained no rotational activity, just heavy winds gusting between 21 and 59 miles per hour.

No serious damage was reported, but at least 1,574 residents in Cumberland County lost power, according to Progress Energy's website.

The dark skies and swaying trees frightened many residents still shaken from the April 16 tornado.

That storm killed one person, wrecked 945 homes and caused more than $100 million in damage in the county.

On the Fayetteville Observer's Facebook page, some residents in neighborhoods heavily damaged by the tornado expressed their fear.

Houses were moved off their foundations and residents feared for their lives as tornadoes ripped through New Plymouth early today.

The Fire Service has confirmed there were two tornadoes, and a possible third. They went through the city at about 4:20am.

One hit the city centre, causing substantial damage to businesses. The other hit a hotel and St Mary's Church Hall on Vivian St, a few blocks from the CBD, breaking roof tiles and ripping up a tree.

Canon pastor Bill Marsh said he was thankful the damage was all repairable.

The Fire Service said there may have been another tornado in the nearby town of Bell Block, where there has been more damage to buildings.

Emergency services have been inspecting damage around the city, and say business owners in the affected area should also check their properties.

China has mobilized troops to help with flood relief and raised its disaster alert to the highest level after days of downpours forced the evacuation of more than half a million people in central and southern provinces.

The official China Daily said more than 555,000 people had been evacuated in seven provinces and a municipality after rains in recently drought-stricken areas caused floods and mudslides in the Yangtze River basin.

Central authorities have raised the disaster alert to the highest level 4, and the government is describing the floods in some areas, such as eastern Zhejiang province's Qianting River area, as the worst since 1955.

Local media said two dykes in the village areas of Zhuji in Zhejiang province were breached on Thursday, flooding two towns and 21 villages.

New Delhi - At least 11 people died and six fishing boats carrying around 100 fishermen were missing as monsoon rains lashed India's eastern coastal state of West Bengal, officials said Saturday.

The heavy downpour which began on Friday inundated the main city of Kolkata and disrupted road and rail traffic across the state.

Kolkata received 154 millimetres of rainfall on Friday, the highest for the city on any single day in June in the last decade.

Boats had been pressed into service to rescue people in some waterlogged areas, officials said.

'At least 11 people have been killed in rain-related accidents including landslides and house-collapses in West Bengal over the past 24 hours,' Monoj Das, an officer at Kolkata's main police control room said.

Chandigarh, June 18, Intermittent spells of moderate to heavy rain Saturday morning, accompanied by strong winds and thunder, brought welcome relief from summer heat to Chandigarh and its surrounding areas.

Heavy rains lashed Chandigarh and various parts of Punjab and Haryana Saturday morning, bringing down the mercury in this region.

Chandigarh recorded a minimum temperature of 22.2 degrees Celsius Saturday morning, which was five notches below normal. Besides, this centrally administered city recorded a rainfall of 36.2 mm in the last 24 hours.

"We had light rainfall in various parts of this region Friday night and heavy showers this morning. This trend is going on for the last couple of days. Whenever mercury starts soaring, we have rainfall to bring it down. This is due to the movement of western disturbances over this region," a met official told IANS here.

"We are expecting similar conditions to continue for the next four-five days. Though this is not unusual, the frequency of showers has increased in June this time. We are expecting the actual monsoon to arrive in this part of the country by the end of this month," he added.
Punjab's Amritsar city recorded a minimum temperature of 23.4 degrees Celsius Saturday morning while Patiala (12.6 mm rainfall) and Ludhiana (27.6 mm rainfall) settled at a low of 23.3 and 21.7 degrees Celsius, respectively.

In Haryana, Ambala received heavy rainfall of 63.5 mm and recorded a minimum temperature of 22.8 degrees Celsius. On the other hand, Hisar recorded a minimum temperature of 27.1 degrees Celsius.