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Severe storms producing wind gusts up to 85 mph, heavy rain and lightning strikes in Minnesota and Wisconsin early on Friday, knocked down trees and power lines and at one point left more than 176,000 customers without power. _0"> An area stretching from the Dakotas through Wisconsin was bracing for more storms, some severe, later on Friday and possible flooding after reports of three to four inches of rain fell in some communities already, the National Weather Service said.   "The weather pattern is pretty much going to be stationary tonight and through the weekend so we are concerned about the severe weather and also the potential for flooding," said Jacob Beitlich, a weather service meteorologist in the Twin Cities. The storms developed in the Dakotas and powered southeast through Minnesota into Wisconsin, bringing heavy straight-line wind damage with a gust of 85 mph at the heart of it northwest of the Twin Cities, he said. The weather service also has issue

President Barack Obama is likely to roll out a number of measures on climate policy, potentially including a strategy to limit greenhouse gas emissions from existing power plants, in a speech on Tuesday, sources familiar with the plans told Reuters. _0"> The potential move on power utilities, which account for roughly 40 percent of the nation's carbon dioxide emissions, will come as Obama sets the fight to curb climate change as a priority for his second term.   Regulations are still pending on yet-to-be-built power plants, after the Environmental Protection Agency in April missed a deadline to roll out emissions rules. But environmentalists have been pushing the administration to go after a bigger target, and set tighter standards for the roughly 1,400 coal-fired burners that are already feeding the nation's electric grid. Earlier this week, the White House's top energy and climate adviser, Heather Zichal, said that Obama will take several steps to make tackl

The heaviest floods in decades shut down the Canadian oil capital of Calgary on Friday, with an evacuation of the downtown core and tens of thousands of residents forced to leave their homes. Police said four people may have died in the town of High River, located about 60 km (37 miles) south of Calgary, including a woman who was swept away with her camper and a man seen falling from a canoe in the swollen Highwood River.   Some 1,200 troops were helping with the evacuations. "This is a tragic situation," Alberta Premier Alison Redford said at a press conference. "I think in the circumstances the response has been incredibly effective but that doesn't mean that people aren't impacted. This is a natural disaster." Around 100,000 people of Calgary's 1.1 million residents, were ordered to leave their homes, while smaller communities were evacuated elsewhere in the Western Canadian province. By mid-afternoon, rivers had flooded roads and bridges, forc

Three wildfires sparked by lightning raged out of control in rugged Colorado mountain terrain on Friday, prompting the evacuation of two towns and menacing a third. The West Fork Fire Complex - consisting of two separate fires in Rio Grande County in southern Colorado - forced 600 residents of South Fork to flee as high winds helped the blazes grow from 12,000 acres to 30,000 acres overnight.   "The fire behavior we saw yesterday was so extreme, it was ... unprecedented," said Eric Norton, a fire behavior analyst with the National Incident Management Organization. A smoke plume from the blazes billowed 30,000 feet into the air, and firefighters reported 100-foot (30-meter) flames. A string of fires have claimed at least two lives, charred hundreds of square miles and torched hundreds of homes across the western United States and in Alaska, which is baking in a heat wave. The blazes, coming just as firefighters near Colorado Springs have contained the state's most d

Demolition crews on Friday began work on the biggest dam removal in California, a project aimed at protecting homes threatened by the aging, obsolete structure and restoring spawning grounds for native trout. Plans call for the 94-year-old San Clemente Dam, built on the Carmel River about 120 miles south of San Francisco, to be torn down in stages over three years, followed by rerouting of the river around the dam site and wildlife restoration.   "In 10 years, when you come to the site, you won't be able to tell there was a dam there," said Jeff Szytel, founder of contractor Water Systems Consulting, who is overseeing the project. The demolition is part of a larger safety and restoration effort that will include removal of a smaller dam downstream from San Clemente and recycling of sediment that has built up in the reservoir behind the dam. The dam was designed to divert Carmel River water to the Monterey Peninsula, but with the reservoir nearly filled with silt tha

Air quality in Singapore improved significantly to "moderate" pollution levels on Saturday, as Indonesian planes waterbombed raging forest fires and investigators scrambled to determine the cause of one of Southeast Asia's worst air pollution crises. Indonesia's environment minister said eight domestic firms were suspected of being responsible for the blazes on Sumatra island that blanketed neighboring Singapore in record levels of hazardous smog. The parent companies of the Indonesian firms included Malaysia-listed Sime Darby and Singapore's Wilmar Group.   A senior presidential aide on Friday also blamed units of Jakarta-based PT Sinar Mas Agro Resources and Technology (SMART) and Asia Pacific Resources International (APRIL) for the fires. "We will take legal action whoever they are," Environment Minister Balthasar Kambuaya told reporters. "Any companies from Indonesia , Malaysia or Singapore, they will be legally processed." But Indone

Southern Alberta braced for more disruption on Saturday from floods that killed at least three people, forced about 100,000 from their homes and blacked out the center of Canada's oil capital, Calgary. Communities to the south and east of Calgary were on high alert as flood waters moved across the region. But with rainfall easing, a few residents began returning to damaged homes and authorities were hopeful that the worst might be over.   "It's morning in Calgary! Sunny, water levels are down, and our spirit remains strong," Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi said on Twitter. "We're not out of this, but maybe have turned (the) corner." The floods followed some 36 hours of unusually heavy rainfall - some communities received six months of their normal rainfall in under two days. Evacuations started on Thursday in Calgary and in smaller cities. Utility Enmax switched off power to central Calgary on Friday afternoon lest water damage its downtown facilities,