"In West, it's either flames or floods"

...On the Utah-Arizona line, where temperatures exceeded 100 degrees, 50 firefighters and two air tankers fought a blaze southwest of St. George that was sparked by lightning Thursday and burned at least 4, 000 acres, or six square miles.

In Southern California, a 1, 500-acre wildfire burned Friday in the foothills of Santa Barbara County. It was 30 percent contained and had "potential to grow, " county fire Capt. Eli Iskow said.

In southeast Oregon, a burning vehicle ignited a wildfire Thursday that grew to 10, 000 acres. It was burning Friday five miles away from the Oregon State University's Northern Great Basin Experiment Station, federal officials said.

- Rain slows in and around Texas, but water may still rise -

Heavy rains that have pounded parts of Texas for weeks were leaving the state Friday, but the fast-moving currents they left in the Brazos River hampered the search for a boy swept from his father's arms.

Meanwhile, rivers in Oklahoma and Kansas continued to recede, revealing millions of dollars in flood damage to homes and businesses.

The region may get some relief beginning this weekend. Much of Texas may get some daytime showers and isolated thunderstorms over the weekend, but the large swaths of pounding rain were expected to dissipate, forecasters said...

But river waters could keep rising in some places. Forecasters warned that the Trinity River in East Texas would crest near 43 feet on Sunday - well above the 28-foot flood stage. Flood warnings were in effect for rivers in Oklahoma.

The waters of the Brazos River in East Texas were moving so fast that it was pushing out 20 miles into the Gulf of Mexico on Friday, and taking everything caught upstream - from cars to refrigerators to trees - with it...