Fay forces more people to flee homes

Flooding left behind by Tropical Storm Fay forced residents in parts of northern Florida out of their homes, while the storm's remnants were forecast to dump several inches of rain on at least four other states.

Officials ferried people by boat from homes in DeBary, 25 miles north of Orlando -- where some streets were under 4 feet of water -- and flooded neighborhoods in and around Tallahassee.

Fay made landfall a record four times in Florida before it was downgraded to a tropical depression late Saturday. The storm caused widespread flooding as it zigzagged across Florida for nearly a week.

Fay has been blamed for 13 deaths in the U.S., 11 in Florida and one each in Alabama and Georgia. A total of 23 died in Haiti and the Dominican Republic from flooding.

UTAH

Clues sought in fatal plane crash

Investigators had little more than ash and blackened shards of metal to sift through as they tried to figure out what caused a twin-engine plane to crash shortly after taking off, killing all 10 people on board.

"The aircraft was pretty much consumed by fire," said Keith Holloway, a spokesman for the National Transportation Safety Board. "When there aren't identifiable pieces, sometimes we don't know right away what was working and what wasn't working."

A preliminary crash report could be finished late this week or early next, Holloway said, two days after nine members of a dermatology clinic and the pilot who was flying them died in eastern Utah.

Moab was one of nine regular stops for the team from Southwest Skin and Cancer/Red Canyon Aesthetics & Medical Spa in Cedar City, a rapidly growing town of 28,000 in southwestern Utah.

MAINE

Farmer's Almanac forecasts a chill

People worried about the high cost of keeping warm this winter will draw little comfort from the Farmer's Almanac, which predicts below-average temperatures for most of the U.S.

"Numb's the word," says the 192-year-old publication, which claims an accuracy rate of 80% to 85% for its forecasts, which are prepared two years in advance.

The almanac's 2009 edition, on sale Tuesday, says at least two-thirds of the country can expect colder-than-average temperatures this winter, with only the far West and Southeast in line for near-normal readings.

From Times Wire Reports