ANTANANARIVO (AFP) - Thirty-six people were killed and 42 were missing in north Madagascar after a storm lashed the region at the weekend, while scores more were feared drowned at sea, rescue services said. AFP Slideshow: Cyclones & Typhoons DELANO, Calif. - Record numbers of ducks, ibises, egrets and other waterfowl are wintering in a wildlife refuge in the southern San Joaquin Valley, thriving in restored wetlands that have been fully flooded for the first time since creation of the refuge four decades ago. Covering the Kern National Wildlife Refuge's 6,500 acres of wetlands in water after decades of only having enough resources to water a third of the area has turned the marsh into "an oasis in the desert," said Ducks Unlimited biologist Chris Hildebrandt. 8th street latinas A federal act passed in 1992 and gradually implemented over the last decade has mandated that Central Valley refuges receive a reliable supply of water. To the wildlife at Kern — a wetlands refuge created without its own water supply in the middle of thirsty grape and cotton farms — the Central Valley Project Improvement Act has made all the difference. Thick green tufts of bulrushes, wild millet and other native grasses dot the lush marshland, providing food and shelter for familiar birds like mallard ducks, the little white-billed black coots and the common moorehen, but also attracting more than 6,000 white-faced ibises, a bird hardly seen in the Central Valley 10 years ago, and birds that are rare in the area, like tri-colored blackbirds. Clusters of cottonwood trees are weighed down by dozens of great blue herons in their nests. The majestic bird lives on the +frogs+ and fish it catches in the surrounding marsh. Mike in Brazil "If you worked at it, you could spot 150 species out here in a day," said refuge manager David Hardt. The refuge now gets its water through canals, but it was once part of the Tulare lake basin, a vast marshland complex made up of shallow pools and rivulets covering nearly 800,000 acres. Until the 1850s, it was the most important wetlands west of the Mississippi, and served the migrating birds that traveled north and south along the Pacific Flyway