Nation briefs 9/2/03

Jimena downgraded before hitting Hawaii

HONOLULU -- Hurricane Jimena weakened and was downgraded to a tropical storm Monday, missing the Hawaiian Islands but still causing high surf and heavy rain.

The Central Pacific Hurricane Center lifted the hurricane watch for Hawaii, the state's biggest and southernmost island.

Still, high surf and a threat of heavy rain put a damper on Labor Day beach plans for residents and tourists along eastern and southern shores of Hawaii, also known as the Big Island.

Beaches remained closed Monday because of rough waves and rip currents. Surf was running 8 to 12 feet high, with 15-foot waves still possible.

Scattered power outages affected a few thousand people, with the largest blacking out 1,300 customers in the rural Volcano and Glenwood communities.

Maximum sustained wind had slowed to 60 mph, 14 mph less than hurricane strength, down from 80 mph early in the morning. The storm was moving west-southwest at 17 mph.

Four children drown in Kansas flash flooding

EMPORIA, Kan. -- Four children drowned when a wall of water swept over the Kansas Turnpike, dragging their family's minivan more than a mile as their father tried desperately to pull them to safety. Their mother and another motorist were missing.

Meanwhile, in suburban Kansas City, authorities on Monday found the body of an 18-year-old who was missing after he went swimming in a rain-swollen creek.

The four children -- all under age 10 -- were found dead, three of them still strapped into the mangled minivan in Emporia, southwest of Kansas City. The search for their mother, as well as a man missing from a separate vehicle, resumed Monday morning.

The search was focused on a rain-swollen reservoir three miles south of the turnpike behind a dam, fire officials said. More than 50 people, in boats and walking the shore, were working their way from the earthen dam back toward the turnpike as the water slowly began to recede.

The family's vehicle and five other vehicles were washed off the roadway late Saturday in eastern Kansas when torrential rain sent a creek spilling over Interstate 35, authorities said. Everyone on the other vehicles was accounted for.

Three employees slain in Texas restaurant

TEXARKANA, Texas -- Three employees were found shot to death inside an Outback Steakhouse early Monday, police said.

The bodies were found in the office area.

"At this point we're unsure what the motive was. It's likely that it was robbery, but we don't know that for sure," said police Sgt. Danny Presley.

He said officers were sent to the restaurant at about 3 a.m. after receiving a call from the wife of manager Matt Hines.

The woman, whose name wasn't released, said her husband hadn't come home and she wasn't able to contact him at the restaurant, Presley said.

She went to the restaurant and saw the cars belonging to her husband and two other employees, but could not get into the restaurant because the doors were locked.

-- From wire reports