Although Hurricane Irene was downgraded to a tropical and eventually a post-tropical storm as it reached the U.S.-Canadian border, it left a trail of destruction and devastating floods along the East Coast, and at least 25 people dead.
Click Here for Hurricane Irene Storm Tracker
Despite the downgrade, though, Hurricane Irene is still certain to rate as the 10th-billion-dollar U.S. weather-related disaster of 2011. Irene continued to cause damage late Sunday and overnight, plowing through upstate New York and Vermont, where emergency crews worked furiously to save stranded residents across the Northeast corridor.
In Prattsville, N.Y., 21 people were trapped in a hotel as floodwaters surrounded the building early Monday. The group reportedly included two pregnant women, seven toddlers and three babies.
According to Dan King at the Greene County Office of Emergency Management, the New York National Guard plucked the people from the water-logged hotel and took them to a shelter, but some still remained early Monday.
"The water is receding on the mountaintop. The last several people who needed to be extracted from homes that had been blocked from water actually walked out. There are still some people who are isolated in their homes. They cannot get out," he said.
Hurricane Irene Prompts Rescues in N.J., Pa.
Watch Video Hurricane Irene Leaves, but Rivers Still Rising
Watch Video The hurricane brought torrential rain for extended periods up and down the coast, causing major flooding in rivers in upstate New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont.
Just east the town of Prattsville, the town of Windham, N.Y., was "wiped out" by flooding, with 4 feet of water rushing through Main Street, said Michael Scarey, the town's fire chief.
Hammering rains that started Saturday night dumped more than 10 inches of water on the normally quiet community, forcing evacuations, submerging school buses and garages and shutting off access to the rest of the mountaintop.
As the storm continued to track farther away overnight with winds and seas gradually diminishing, many rivers and streams that still remained flooded were expected to slowly recede over the next several days, according to the National Weather Service.
In Vermont, flooding had washed away homes and bridges as rivers across the state were at or near their crest. The state was experiencing its worst flooding since 1927 in the wake of Irene.
"We still have a number of significant flooding problems across Vermont and northern New York, and those will continue through the remainder of this morning before the rivers gradually subside later today," Peter Banacos at the National Weather Service in Burlington said Monday.
In addition to the 25 dead, Irene left millions without power.
The dead include victims of car accidents and falling tree limbs, and the storm victims include two children: an 11-year-old boy in Virginia, and a 15-year-old girl in North Carolina.
More than 4.5 million homes and businesses along the East Coast were without power Sunday while thousands of people had been evacuated from their homes, according to The Associated Press.
Close to 2 million people lost power in the New York City area. The National Grid reported that 19,000-plus homes in Rhode Island lost power, and 6,000-plus homes are already without power in Massachusetts. Consolidated Edison says they are still trying to restore power to some 106-thousand customers in New York City and Westchester County, just north of the city.
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