Flood, Natural Disaster | featured news

Nearly 100,000 people were ordered to flee the rising Susquehanna River on Thursday as the remnants of Tropical Storm Lee dumped more rain across the Northeast, socking areas still recovering from Hurricane Irene and closing major highways at the morning rush. At Binghamton, N.Y., the wide river broke a flood record and flowed over retaining walls downtown. Interstate 88 was closed and emergency responders scrambled to evacuate holdouts who didn’t heed warnings to leave neighborhoods.

The big, ugly hunk of weather known as Lee weakened as it moved across Louisiana on Monday morning, and is no longer classified as a tropical storm -- though experts warn it could still cause flooding as it moves up the East Coast.

Japan's death toll from tropical depression Talas, earlier downgraded from a tropical storm, has risen to 25 with 52 missing, the government said Monday, as torrential rain pounded the west of the country at the weekend, triggering mudslides and bursting river banks.

President Barack Obama traveled to flood-stricken New Jersey Sunday to survey the damage caused by Hurricane Irene.

President Obama on Wednesday declared a major disaster area in New York state because of Hurricane Irene, while residents of neighboring New Jersey faced fresh flooding as rivers were pushed to their limits by runoff from northern regions.

Almost a dozen New England towns were rendered virtual islands Monday as floodwaters from the remnants of Hurricane Irene reshaped parts of Vermont and upstate New York, turning placid rivers into raging torrents and some streets into treacherous mud bogs.

New York became the latest state to declare a state of emergency in a scramble to get ahead of Hurricane Irene as the storm prepares to make a potentially deadly drive up the East Coast. Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo's declaration Thursday follows those of Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley. North Carolina Gov. Beverly Perdue - whose state is projected to take the first hit Saturday when Hurricane Irene makes landfall in the U.S. - limited her declaration to counties east of Interstate 95.

Virginia officials warned residents on Thursday to prepare for massive power outages, flooding and damage from Hurricane Irene comparable to that of Hurricane Isabel, which knocked out power to about 2 million people as it tore through the state in 2003.

A temporary earthen levee is the only barrier standing between Hamburg, Iowa, and the floodwaters of the Missouri River.

Crews are trying to beat floodwaters expected in an Iowa town on Tuesday by building up a secondary barrier to protect it from a massive hole in its main Missouri River levee.