Weather Signs

GAUHATI, India (AP) — Monsoon floods have left nearly 80,000 people stranded and dependent on emergency aid for food and water in India's remote northeast, an official said Wednesday. Authorities used motorboats to rush aid to flood victims in more than 70 inundated villages on Majuli, one of Asia's largest freshwater islands located in the Brahmaputra River. Heavy monsoon rains have been lashing the region since Monday, and officials warn that more rain will fall in the flood-prone region in the coming days. Last year, floodwaters submerged nearly half of Majuli island and forced up to 30,000 people to flee to higher ground. Floods, mudslides, house collapses and lightning strikes have killed at least 225 people across the country so far this year.

MELBOURNE, Fla. — Tropical Storm Fay continued its slow, wet trudge across Florida for a fifth day Friday, prompting communities farther inland and on the state's Gulf coast to brace for what could be drenching rains. The erratic storm has dumped more than two feet of rain along parts of Florida's low-lying central Atlantic coast. It is just the fourth storm to make landfall in Florida three separate times, and the first in nearly 50 years. Before it crosses the Panhandle by the weekend, it could bring buckets of rain and power outages. Isolated tornadoes were possible in parts of northeastern Florida, southeastern Georgia and southern South Carolina, the National Hurricane Center said. As if a fifth straight day of rain from Tropical Storm Fay wasn't enough, weary residents are now dealing with quintessentially Floridian fallout: -- alligators, snakes and other critters that have been driven from their swampy lairs into flooded streets, backyards and doorsteps.