Tropical Storm Bertha regained some of its strength Monday afternoon prompting the government of Bermuda to issue a Hurricane Watch, while forecasters were keeping an eye on a tropical wave just east of the Leeward Islands that could strengthen into the third named tropical storm for this season.

Bermuda residents reported strong winds and rain which has knocked down branches with occasional power outages, but little damage as the storm passed east and north of the island. The National Hurricane Center said Monday afternoon its predictions called for the storm to become a hurricane again by early Tuesday morning before meandering to the east-southeast in the open Atlantic.

Forecasters said the tropics are favorable for development of what could become Tropical Storm Christobal by Wednesday. Long range tracking models suggest the storm could track across the Caribbean and into the Gulf of Mexico. Intensity predictions call for it to become a hurricane by the end of the week.

The Alamo wildfire spread Sunday to more than 3,000 acres near the state's border with Mexico.

The fire was burning in the sparsely settled Pajarita Wilderness about 7 miles west of Blanca Lake. It was thought to have been human-started.

A Superior Court judge in Burlington County approved a $1 million settlement Friday for residents of Medford Lakes whose homes were damaged in a 2004 flood that was blamed on the failure of a dam.

It is the latest of nearly two dozen settlements reached with the owners of a string of dams in the Rancocas Creek watershed that failed during the July 2004 storm damaging 200 homes and businesses. So far, $6 million has been awarded to the residents.

Residents of a neighborhood near Albuquerque woke up Friday to flooding after an irrigation ditch in the South Valley broke.

A spokesman from the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District said the South Valley break was patched within two hours, but not before causing minor damage to homes nearby. "It looked like the bayou," said one resident.