Irene claims 33 deaths in US

WASHINGTON: Hurricane Irene is being blamed for at least 33 deaths in 10 eastern US states, emergency officials and local media said Monday, as many parts of the northeast suffered disastrous flooding.

The toll includes six fatalities each in New York state and North Carolina, five in Pennsylvania, four each in New Jersey and Virginia, two each in Connecticut, Florida and Vermont, and one each in Maryland and Massachusetts.

Most of the fatalities were caused by falling trees, road accidents, or people being swept away by floodwater as Irene, now downgraded to a post-tropical cyclone over Canada, wreaked havoc up the eastern seaboard.

The youngest fatalities were an 11-year-old boy killed by a falling tree in his apartment on the Virginia coast and a 15-year-old girl who died in a car accident in North Carolina when the traffic lights failed.

Six deaths were being blamed on Irene in New York state, including a man who was electrocuted as he tried to save a child who had gone into a flooded street with downed wires.

The New York Police Department confirmed one of the fatalities, that of a 68-year-old father of 13 in the Bronx who was found dead in the water after he went to check on his boat.

Massachusetts reported its first death: a man electrocuted by a downed power line, emergency management spokesman Scott MacLeod told AFP.

A New Jersey rescuer died in hospital of injuries sustained on Sunday when he was swept away by floodwaters in Princeton. He had been on life support and was prematurely announced as dead on Sunday by Governor Chris Christie.

In Canada, Quebec police said one man had been swept away in Yamaska, northeast of Montreal when his car plunged into a chasm created by a washed-out road, but would not yet confirm his death.

More fatalities are feared after Irene barreled up the east coast late Sunday into the densely populated northeastern states of Connecticut, Vermont, Rhode Island and Massachusetts, and then on into Canada, dumping heavy rains.

Millions of people in the United States were still without power and officials warned that flood damage from the massive storm's heavy rains may be felt for days.

Irene earlier last week left at least five people dead in the Caribbean, including one in the US territory of Puerto Rico and two each in the Dominican Republic and Haiti. (AFP)