Obama to view hurricane Irene damage on Sunday

Emergency provisions have had to be airlifted to dozens of communities stranded by floodwaters US President Barack Obama will travel to view damage from Hurricane Irene on Sunday in Paterson, New Jersey, site of disastrous floods sparked by the storm last weekend, the White House said. "On Sunday, September 4, the President will travel to Paterson, New Jersey, to view damage from Hurricane Irene."
US rescuers battled to reach thousands cut off by flooding in towns across Vermont, New Jersey and upstate New York as the death toll from Hurricane Irene climbed towards 50.
Emergency provisionshad to be airlifted to dozens of communities stranded by floodwaters as torrential weekend rains dumped by the massive storm system washed away roads and sent rivers cascading over their banks.
President Barack Obama dispatched senior officials to survey some of the worst of the damage as rescuers ferried thousands of people -- including the elderly, small children and babies -- to safety in rubber motorboats.
Although the much-hyped direct-hit on New York failed to translate into major damage or casualties in America's most populous city, heavy rain in places like the Catskill Mountains proved a ticking disaster time-bomb.
Two days after the storm's passage, marooned families were still waiting anxiously for the national guard and firefighters to bring food and water to towns swamped by the floodwaters.
The main highway to Wilmington, Vermont was clogged with mud and Irene had turned other roads into deathtrap chasms after dumping two months worth of rain (8.3 inches, 21 centimeters) in less than a day.
"The problem is inaccessibility," emergency operations supervisor Dave Miller told AFP as teams struggled to pull trucks out of the sludge and remove fallen trees that had perilously dragged down power lines.
The drastic situation was mirrored in parts of New Jersey and upstate New York, where schools and community centers turned into makeshift Red Cross emergency shelters were nearing full capacity.
In Paterson, New Jersey, teams were rescuing and evacuating people non-stop under thankfully blue skies after the Passaic River crested 13 feet (four meters) above flood stage, its highest level since 1903.
"It's over 500 (people rescued) and the amount is climbing," police sergeant Alex Popov told CNN. "We are dealing with elderly people, families, small children, and pets."
Millions of Americans remained without electricity, many farther south in states like Virginia and North Carolina, where Irene's winds were strongest as the storm barreled up the eastern seaboard on Saturday and Sunday.
Vermont, a mountainous state criss-crossed by numerous streams and rivers, saw several towns completely cut off by the floods and some smaller communities were reportedly wiped off the map.
"There are currently 13 communities that are unreachable by vehicle due to road damage," said a statement from Vermont Emergency Management.
"There are more than 200 roads that are still impassable statewide and all 500 road workers from the Agency of Transportation are on the street today working on repairs. Much of that staff is working with local road crews to make isolated towns accessible."
Dramatic television pictures from New Jersey, New York and Vermont showed flash floods sweeping through towns and vast oceans of water out in the country where rivers had burst their banks.
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack visited Virginia and North Carolina on Tuesday, while top disaster official Craig Fugate went to Burlington, Vermont.
"What I saw in North Carolina was really quite startling and quite significant in terms of agricultural damage," Vilsack told a conference call with journalists afterwards.
"Corn fields that were destroyed, cotton fields where cotton was now lying on the ground, damage to soya bean as well as tobacco fields in North Carolina as well as Virginia... significant damage to the tomato industry."
Research firms have estimated that Irene could cause up to $7 billion in damage, but that does not factor in the longer-term effect on farmers whose livelihoods may now be under threat.
Officials reported at least 43 deaths across 11 states, including eight in New York, seven in New Jersey and six in North Carolina, where Irene made landfall Saturday with winds upwards of 85 miles (140 kilometers) an hour.
The hurricane was already responsible for at least five deaths in the Caribbean before it struck the United States, and is being blamed for a 49th fatality in Canada, where the storm finally petered out on Tuesday.
More trouble was on the way though as Tropical Storm Katia formed in the Atlantic, forecast to become a category 3 hurricane by Saturday or Sunday with winds topping 120 miles per hour.
Rescue workers rushed Tuesday to get aid into flooded communities in New Jersey and Vermont, where many residents remain stranded in the aftermath of Hurricane Irene.
Marc Leibowitz, a New Yorker, went to Vermont over the weekend to get married. The wedding went off without a hitch, he said, but now he is stranded in the town of Pittsfield, with no roads to get him and his guests out.
Residents have food and drinkable water, but resources are limited and won't last forever, Leibowitz told CNN's "AC 360."
"There's several bridges down on Route 100. There's a road that just caved in. There's several houses in town that we watched floating. It's been scary," he said.
Thirteen Vermont towns were inaccessible by roads early Tuesday. By late afternoon, Route 100 into Stratton and Rochester had opened and officials said they hoped to have the remainder of those towns accessible soon.
In Grafton, Vermont, 800 residents were stranded. "It's one massive mess," said Tara Taylor, who came out of Grafton to nearby Rockingham, along with her family. "There's no words to describe this."
While part of Grafton has maintained electricity, much of the town is running on generators, she said. But as far as she knew, people were well, and no one had been hurt, Taylor said. "We've been very lucky with this."
Taylor's young daughter told CNN she had seen pictures of some devastated areas. "It just tore me apart on how it was like all just gone," she said.
Mark Bosma of the Vermont Office of Emergency Management said officials were working to bring supplies to cut-off communities, turned temporarily into islands.
The National Guard operated two helicopters, doing drop-offs where needed, delivering such necessities as food, water, medicine, diapers and formula.
Meanwhile, in New Jersey, search-and-rescue teams went door-to-door by boat in flooded communities, transporting families from their homes to higher ground.
"The water's moving so fast," said Scott Evans of the New Jersey Office of Emergency Management. "It's not even safe to go close to the river at this point."
Evans spoke with CNN in Paterson, New Jersey, just three blocks from the swollen Passaic River.
Water in the street was as high as 15 to 18 feet, he said. Some one-story buildings were fully submerged.
Tuesday morning alone, 34 people, including 14 children, were rescued in Paterson along with three dogs, Evans said.
While people had been warned that river levels were rising and flooding was likely, some stayed in their homes overnight because they didn't realize the water would come gushing so quickly, Evans said.
An estimated 2.85 million customers remained without power Tuesday afternoon, the U.S. Department of Energy said. That included more than half a million each in Connecticut and New York, more than 400,000 in Virginia, more than 300,000 in New Jersey and more than 250,000 in Maryland.
Nearly 6.7 million customers initially were left without power by the storm, the department said.
"This storm covered a tremendous amount of territory," Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano told reporters in Virginia. She said most states are now in recovery, though a few states -- like Vermont and New Jersey -- are still in response mode.
Napolitano traveled to North Carolina and Virginia on Tuesday with Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to meet with state and local officials and to survey storm efforts.
Vilsack spoke to reporters in North Carolina after touring some of the hardest-hit areas. He said tobacco, cotton and corn producers had suffered extensive damage.
The full extent of Irene's destruction won't be known for some time. The federal government estimates that the cost from wind damage alone will exceed $1 billion. Analysts have put the total expected cost of Irene much higher.