PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania – US President Barack Obama declared an emergency in New York state, ordering federal agencies to coordinate disaster relief efforts to "save lives and to protect property and public health and safety," the White House said.The National Weather Service (NWS) issued a flash flood warning for counties in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Maryland and Virginia, as towns became inundated, busy highways closed down and commuter lines backed up.
Heavy rain on Thursday swamped areas of the US northeast already sodden from Hurricane Irene, with up to five people killed as flash floods forced over 100,000 to leave their homes.- Some 100,000 people in Pennsylvania's Luzerne County are under "mandatory evacuation" orders, including 20,000 in the city of Wilkes-Barre, according to local officials.
- The city of Binghamton, New York - where 8.5 inches (21.6 centimeters) of rain fell in 24 hours ordered a mandatory city-wide evacuation, affecting 10,000 people.
Flooding was also reported in and around the US capital Washington. "We expect historic or near-historic flooding in many parts of the state," Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency spokeswoman Ruth Miller told AFP.Three unconfirmed fatalities during the stormy weather have been reported to authorities in Pennsylvania, she said, as the state grappled with some of its worst flooding since 1972's benchmark Hurricane Agnes, which ravaged much of the mid-Atlantic region as a deadly tropical storm.
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