AP: Extreme weather, fires befall nation

May 9, 6:37 PM EDT

Extreme weather, fires befall nation

By ROGER PETTERSON
Associated Press Writer

NEW YORK (AP) -- Nature's fury made life miserable Wednesday from one end of the nation to the other, with people forced out of their homes by wildfires near both coasts and the Canadian border and by major flooding in the Midwest.

And although the calendar still said spring, the first named storm of the year was whipping up surf on the beaches of the Southeast.

Overall, it wasn't quite a day for the record books.

"It's a major flood," National Weather Service meteorologist Suzanne Fortin said Wednesday of the flooding in Missouri. "It won't be a record breaker, but it will be in the top three."

...