Hurricane Irene is gone but Vermont is the latest state to deal with her fury as two people are dead and one is missing in the worst flooding the state has seen in 84 years.
The death toll for the country from Irene's three-day rampage up the coast now stands at 32.
Hurricane Irene's last gasp caused catastrophic flooding in the mountainous state, the worst deluge the state has endured since 1927. It washed away roads, homes, bridges and the state's emergency operations center.
The storm is also blamed for the deaths of two people and the disapperance of a third.
A young woman died Sunday in the town of Wilmington when her car was engulfed by the Deerfield River. A man believed to have been inspecting the water system in the town of Rutland was also killed, according Mark Bosma, a spokesman for Vermont's Emergency Operations Center. Another man who was also inspecting the water system is still missing.
All state offices are closed and the National Guard has deployed six rapid response teams.
"This event unfold much faster than anyone anticipated," Vermont National Guard spokesman Lt. Col. Lloyd Goodrow said.
President Obama signed an emergency declaration for Vermont this morning.
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Watch Video "We're continuing to deal with the impact and the aftermath of Hurricane Irene," said Obama. "We're going to make sure folks have all the support they need as they begin to assess and repair the damage left by the storm."
New York City is clanking back to life as its train, buses and airports slowly return to service, and communities from North Carolina to Vermont are toting up the damage, which is believed to be in the billions of dollars, making it the tenth billion dollar storm of 2011.
More than 5 million people along the East Coast were without power today.
The cost of paying for Irene has forced the federal government's strapped Disaster Relief Fund to divert money meant for tornado victims in Joplin, Mo. A spokesman for Federal Emergency Management Agency told the Associated Press today that Congress will have to vote for more money to restore full funding for Joplin.
Peter Banacos at the National Weather Service said rivers across Vermont and northern New York will gradually subside during the day.
In Prattsville, N.Y., 21 people were trapped in a hotel as floodwaters surrounded the building. 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 today.
"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.
Just east of the town of Prattsville, the town of Windham, N.Y., was "wiped out" by flooding, with four 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 village, forcing evacuations, submerging school buses and garages and shutting off access to the rest of the mountaintop.
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