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Storm causes chaos in US
16/04/2007 07:15 - (SA)
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| A traffic cone blocks a road where two abandoned cars sit after the Cooper River flooded in New Jersey, after heavy rains. (Tom Mihalek, AP)
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New York - A powerful storm pounded the eastern United States with wind and pouring rain, grounding hundreds of airline flights and threatening to create some of the worst coastal flooding in 14 years.
It has been blamed for eight deaths across the US.
Airlines cancelled more than 400 flights at the New York area's three major airports on Sunday, said Steve Coleman, a spokesperson for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
One person was killed in South Carolina as dozens of mobile homes were destroyed or damaged by wind, and two died in car accidents - one in New York and one in Connecticut. The storm system already had been blamed for five deaths on Friday in Kansas and Texas.
The storm also flooded people out of their homes in the middle of the night in West Virginia, while other inland states faced a threat of heavy snow.
Power knocked out
Thousands of electricity customers lost power in states including New York, Connecticut, New Jersey and North Carolina.
The Coast Guard had warned mariners to head for port because wind up to 88kph was expected to generate seas up to six metres high, Petty Officer Etta Smith said on Sunday in Boston.
Heavy rain and thunderstorms extended from Florida up the coast to New England on Sunday. Wind gusted to 114km at Charleston, South Carolina, the weather service said.
Storm warnings and watches were posted all along the East Coast, with flood warnings extending from North Carolina to the New York area. Winter storm warnings were in effect for parts of New England and eastern New York state.
- AP
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