Flood waters swirled through low-lying communities and evacuated residents waited for rivers to crest early on Tuesday as a spring storm blamed for at least 15 deaths nationwide lingered in the United States Northeast for a third day.
The storm left a huge swathe of devastation, from the beaches of South Carolina to the mountains of Maine. It knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of people and dumped up to 23cm of rain on parts of New Jersey on Monday. More than 20cm fell on New York City’s Central Park, quadrupling the 101-year-old record for the date.
New Jersey was placed under a state of emergency and more than 1 400 residents were evacuated — many by boat.
The storm was especially harsh in the town of Bound Brook, where five homes burned down after fire crews could not reach the buildings because of flood waters. The Raritan River was more than 3,1m above flood stage late on Monday in the town.
In New Hampshire, more than 5 000 people were evacuated from 13 communities and more than 400 roads were closed because of flooding, Governor John Lynch said. A mudslide blocked the state’s main east-west route.
Snow fell in inland areas, including 43cm in Vermont. Wind gusts of more than 129km/h toppled trees on highways in Maine, and snow drifts stranded tractor-trailers on highways in Pennsylvania. Washouts, flooding, mudslides and fallen trees blocked roads from Kentucky to New England.
New York had activated 3 200 National Guard members to help with evacuations. New Hampshire and New Jersey also sent Guardsmen to hard-hit towns, while the Connecticut National Guard supplied amphibious vehicles to the hard-hit south-western part of the state.
Suburbs north of New York City were among the hardest hit. Mamaroneck resident Nicholas Staropoli said a truck near his home ”actually floated up on the riverbank”.
In Maine, a woman and her four-year-old granddaughter died when they were swept into a river by the fast-moving flood waters, the Maine Warden Service reported. Rescuers pulled two people from the river, but they were pronounced dead at a hospital.
A man died in a car stalled in deep water in an underpass in New Jersey, while another drowned in a flooded street. Another person was killed by a tornado in South Carolina, and three died in car accidents — one in upstate New York, one in Connecticut and one in North Carolina. The same storm was blamed for five deaths earlier in Texas and Kansas.
The storm was expected to turn into the worst of its kind since the December 1992 storm that caused millions of dollars’ worth of damage to buildings, boardwalks and beaches.
There was no immediate sign of a let-up. The National Weather Service predicted the storm would stall over New York City before starting to move out to sea on Wednesday. — Sapa-AP