This was largely due to heavy spring rains in Washington, Oregon, and California, which accounted for 71.5 percent of the national rise.

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The spring rains might help, but aid workers say it could take a generation to rebuild the livelihood that have been wiped out here.

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And with the spring rains approaching, those needs will only grow.

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To avoid the rain: in most of the Northeast, Midwest, and Plains, it rains less in the spring than in the height of summer, but in many Southern states, it rains less in the summer than in the spring.

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