TRENTON, N.J. (AP) – One of the nastiest spring nor’easters in years roared over the East Coast early Monday, bringing umbrella-breaking wind and relentless rain that forced evacuations from New Jersey to West Virginia.

Residents of many low-lying areas along the coast left their homes, hundreds of flights were canceled, power was knocked out in pockets across the region and many roads were swamped.

“My one word of advice is to stay home,” state Transportation Commissioner Kris Kolluri said Sunday. “People think they can drive through flooding, and they get stuck.”

One person was killed by a tornado in South Carolina, and two died in car accidents – one in upstate New York and one in Connecticut. The storm rattled the Gulf states Friday and Saturday with violent thunderstorms, raked Texas with at least two tornadoes and was blamed for five deaths before heading northeast.

In Rhode Island, storm-related high winds forced the shutdown of T.F. Green Airport in Warwick early Monday. The winds damaged a construction area near the departure lounge on the second floor, airport spokeswoman Patti Goldstein said.

Up to 18 inches of heavy, wet snow was expected across the higher elevations of Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont. On the coast, strong winds and driving rain sent fishing boats to port, and residents prepared for coastal flooding.

More than 5.5 inches of rain fell in the New York City region Sunday, shattering the record for the date of 1.8 inches set in 1906, according to the National Weather Service. Residents in at least one Queens neighborhood paddled through streets in boats.

Hundreds of people living below an earthen dam in Madison, W.Va., were asked to evacuate because of concerns that heavy rain had destabilized the structure. Gov. Joe Manchin declared a state of emergency for all of West Virginia on Sunday night.

At least three tornadoes touched down in South Carolina on Sunday. The most destructive cut a 14-mile long, 300-yard-wide swath through Sumter County in the central part of the state, killing a woman who was thrown from her mobile home and seriously injuring four other people.

Dozens of mobile homes were destroyed or knocked off their foundations, said Robert Baker Jr., director for the Sumter County Emergency Management Agency.

Airlines canceled more than 500 flights at the New York area’s three major airports, said Steve Coleman, a spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Dozens more were canceled in Philadelphia, Boston and elsewhere in New England.

New York City opened nine emergency storm shelters in flood-prone locations, and ferry service to Fire Island was canceled because of the storm. The Metro-North Railroad suspended service on two of its branches for several hours because of flooding.

There were sustained winds of 30 to 35 mph and gusts of up to 48 mph at John F. Kennedy International Airport. Sunday’s high tide was likely to bring coastal flooding on Long Island and in parts of New York City, the weather service said.

In New Jersey, flooding was reported along the Ramapo and Saddle rivers in Bergen County, while minor flooding was occurring along the Delaware River. Tides were running about 3 feet above normal in the western end of Long Island Sound.

The storm was expected to be the worst of its kind since the December 1992 nor’easter that caused millions of dollars worth of damage to buildings and forced thousands of evacuations.

In Madison, W.Va., heavy rains caused Lee’s Fishing Lake Dam to become destabilized, said Allen Holder, Lincoln County emergency services director.

A break in the dam would affect an area where 500 to 1,000 people live. The 22-foot dam holds at least 5 million gallons of water. At least 100 residents had already complied with a voluntary evacuation.

Earlier Sunday, dozens of people were rescued from homes and vehicles in Boone, Logan and Wyoming counties after flooding spawned by the storm system rolled through southern West Virginia. At least two people were injured and two others were unaccounted for, emergency officials said.

“It’s about as bad as it can get,” said Scott Beckett, chief of the Logan Fire Department. “This thing came down at 2 or 3 in the morning, when people were sleeping in their beds. They just didn’t know what was happening.”

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Associated Press writers Daniela Flores and Matthew Verrinder in Trenton; Tom Breen in Madison, W.Va.; David Sharp in Portland, Maine; and Karen Matthews and David B. Caruso in New York contributed to this report.

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On the Net:

Weather Underground: http://www.wunderground.com/

National Weather Service: http://iwin.nws.noaa.gov/

Intellicast: http://www.intellicast.com/