Different storms are wreaking havoc in two different continents.

In the United States, a storm that has killed dozens of people continued to travel up the western seaboard.

Meanwhile in Europe, the death toll continued to mount and in South America, floods and storms resulted in the death of six children.

Path of destruction

The torrential storm that caused the deadly mudslide in California is leaving a path of destruction in other western US states, bringing flooding that has gobbled up homes and washed out roads.

The heaviest flooding was concentrated in the area where Nevada, Arizona and Utah meet. No serious injuries were reported, but a skier was missing for a third day in the deep snow of rugged western Colorado.

In California, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger on Wednesday surveyed the devastation caused by a huge mudslide that killed at least 10 people. The overall death toll in California from the storms is 28 people.

Flood waters from a swollen river rose in this small Nevada town about 80 kilometers from Las Vegas on Wednesday, even as evacuated residents started returning home.

An estimated 100 homes were damaged, destroyed or cut off by flooding in the Overton area. A police helicopter had to rescue three people after they became trapped in their cars and homes.

Roaring waters also snatched 21 parked freight cars from a nearby Union Pacific train, said company spokesman John Bromley. One car was carrying appliances and the rest were empty.

Emergency officials sent 45 tons of sand, 2,000 sandbags and other assistance to the town.

Officials of Clark County, which includes Las Vegas, had declared an emergency in response to the flooding.

Authorities estimated about 350 homes had been evacuated in Overton and other nearby communities.

Across Arizona, estimates of storm-related damages exceeded US$6 million, a state emergency management spokeswoman said.

Worst storms in years

Five people died in storms across northern Britain and Northern Ireland that left thousands of homes without power or water on Wednesday.

Wind gusts sent trees and telegraph poles toppling through Scotland.

Coast guards said they had located a Spanish fishing trawler reported missing off the west coast of Scotland, and that the 19 crew aboard the Cibeles were safe and well.

A Royal Air Force Nimrod aircraft helped search for the vessel, which was without power and needed to be towed to shore.

"These are the worst storms we have experienced for several years," said Duncan Mackay, watch manager for Stornoway Coastguard in Scotland's Western Isles, where the strongest winds of up to 198 kilometers per hour were recorded.

Scotland's Northern Constabulary said Wednesday it had found the bodies of two men near the island of Benbecula, off Scotland's northwest coast.

It is believed they were swept away by the tide Tuesday night while crossing the causeway that links Benbecula with the neighboring island of South Uist.

A woman and two children from the same Scottish family are still missing in the same incident.

A truck driver died on Tuesday when winds blew his vehicle off Foyle Bridge in Londonderry, Northern Ireland, sending it plummeting more than 30 meters.

Another man was killed in the Borders region of southern Scotland after gusts blew a truck onto his car on a main road linking Edinburgh to Newcastle.

In the Tayside region of east Scotland, a van driver died on Tuesday when his vehicle and a truck collided during the severe weather near the town of Forfar.

Across Scotland, roads and bridges were closed, ferry services abandoned and rail routes suspended as police and travel chiefs appealed to the public to postpone non-essential journeys.

Seven dead in Brazil

A landslide caused by heavy rains killed six children and one adult in a shanty town by the Brazilian city of Sao Paulo on Wednesday morning, a firefighter officer said.

A four-year-old girl was also missing.

The tragedy occurred in the hillside Jardim Silvina Favela, one of numerous shantytowns around the industrial suburb of Sao Bernardo do Campo.

Torrential rains have lashed the Sao Paulo region since Tuesday afternoon and caused severe flooding in some areas.

Asian causes

Deadly storms have scourged the US West Coast since New Year's Day. The real cause could be an Asian-born weather pattern called the Madden-Julian Oscillation.

First identified in the late 1970s, the Madden-Julian Oscillation, or MJO for short, typically begins in the Indian Ocean with a wide area of clouds and rain, meteorologist Ed O'Lenic said on Wednesday.

The current MJO started in its usual location around December 25, O'Lenic said.

Though it began at about the same time and place as the devastating earthquake and tsunami in that region, he stressed that the events were not related.

Ocean waves like tsunamis are driven by gravity, he said, while waves in the atmosphere like those in MJO are driven by temperature differences.

"There were thousands of miles of clouds over the Indian Ocean, and at the same time, a large area of dry air was over Indonesia and the area around the international dateline," O'Lenic said.

"Its origins are mysterious. MJO waxes and wanes in strength and is very sloppy in its propagation."

(China Daily January 14, 2005)