Thousands Evacuated as Heavy Rain Sweeps into Northeast, At Least 10 Dead

(AP) – The storm that drenched the nation’s capital swept through the Northeast on Wednesday, forcing thousands of people from their homes, including more than 2,200 who fled from a rising Maryland lake. A section of interstate highway was washed away in New York state and least 10 deaths were blamed on the weather. Three people were missing.After days of heavy rain and floods, the sun was shining in Washington, D.C., as the dwindling storm moved through New York and New England, but rivers were still rising in much of the region. Numerous highways were blocked by flooding and washouts, including more than 200 in Virginia.Virtually the entire state of Pennsylvania was under a flood watch or warning.A dozen helicopters from the Pennsylvania National Guard, the state police and the U.S. Coast Guard plucked stranded residents from rooftops in Bloomsburg, Sayre and New Milford, and hundreds of National Guard personnel were preparing to distribute ice, water, and meals ready to eat.“We don’t have anywhere to go,” evacuee Mehader Mekonne said Wednesday at a shelter in Montgomery County, Md.The largest evacuation was ordered in an area surrounding Lake Needwood at Rockville, Md., which was approaching 25 feet above normal Wednesday, Montgomery County officials said.Engineers found weakened spots on the lake’s earthen dam, with water seeping through in places, said Bruce Romer, the county’s chief administrative officer.By Wednesday morning, police and rescue crews had evacuated an estimated 2,200 people from 500 apartments and 700 homes, Romer said. About 100 people refused to leave, he said. If the dam were to break, it could flood some areas as much as 20 feet deep, officials said.The soaking weather was produced by a low pressure system that had stalled just out to sea since the weekend and pumped moist tropical air northward along the East Coast. Binghamton, N.Y., measured a record one-day total of 4.05 inches of rain on Tuesday. Although the bulk of the rain moved out of the area Wednesday, meteorologists said more showers and occasional thunderstorms were possible along the East Coast for the rest of the week.New York state officials said two truckers were killed early Wednesday when they drove into a chasm that a flooded creek had carved across all four lanes of Interstate 88, about 35 miles northeast of Binghamton. The hole was 25 feet deep, state police said.Thousands people were evacuated from communities across New York state, Gov. Georgia Pataki said, including hundreds in the Binghamton area. Whole villages north of Binghamton in rural Delaware County were isolated by high water.“We have significant flooding throughout the county,” said Delaware County planning director Nicole Franzese. “Widespread power outages, bridges washed out, roads washed out, the National Guard was operating all night.”Ten New York counties declared states of emergency.I-81 also was closed at Lenox in northeastern Pennsylvania, where the small towns of New Milford and Lanesboro were evacuated, state police said.Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell declared a disaster emergency in 46 of the state’s 67 counties Wednesday and the National Guard had been sent into Schuylkill County, west of Allentown, late Tuesday to help evacuate residents.The Pennsylvania Turnpike was closed near Fort Washington, in the Philadelphia area, and some commuter trains in the area had to skip flooded stations.Along the Delaware River, more than 1,000 people had left low-lying areas of Trenton, N.J. Upriver, a police helicopter had to be used to rescue five people who had not heeded an evacuation order on an island near Port Jervis, N.Y., said Lt. Gerald Lewis of the New York State Police.“When we tell these people to evacuate, we really mean it,” Lewis said.New Jersey state workers in buildings along the Delaware prepared to leave work early and Trenton Mayor Doug Palmer called for water conservation after the debris-choked Delaware forced a shutdown of the city’s water filtration system. The mayor said more than two days of drinkable water remained.In addition to the two deaths in New York, the weather was blamed for two traffic deaths in Pennsylvania and one in Maryland. A 15-year-old boy and a would-be rescuer drowned in a Pennsylvania lake. Three people died in western Maryland when they were washed out of the bed of a pickup truck.Elsewhere in Maryland, two youths, ages 14 and 15, were missing near a swollen creek at Keymar, said state police 1st Sgt. Russell Newell. Teams in Virginia searched for an 8-year-old girl swept away by high water in Alleghany County.

Thousands Evacuated as Heavy Rain Sweeps into Northeast, At Least 10 Dead

Thousands Evacuated as Heavy Rain Sweeps into Northeast, At Least 10 Dead

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