As Irene Lifts From New York, The Worst Appears Over- Part 3 | WPN World People News

During a press conference, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said Irene was not as bad as it could have been. He said all the nuclear power plants are OK.

Waves crash around a home sunday morning in Southampton, N.Y.

Christie said his state will keep seeing historic flooding. In fact, both of the confirmed deaths in New Jersey were caused by flooding. One, which we reported earlier, happened after a woman was washed out in her car and the other is of a rescuer who died during an operation.

The Albany Times Union reports that parts of Albany, Schenectady and Saratoga counties in New York are experiencing severe flooding. 57,000 are without power. In Green County the flooding is so severe "people [are] needing rescue from their residences."

The AP reports that there are now 14 deaths blamed on Irene. This includes at least one death in New Jersey. The Star Ledger reports that death was caused after a woman got in her car and was swept away by flood waters.

The National Weather Service said inland flooding is still a concern as rivers have yet to crest. If you look at this map, you'll see that many river gauges in the interior Northeast are reading "major flooding."

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said while there's still a long way to go, "it's safe to say the worst of the storm has passed."

Some flooding is no match for a scooter ride in Kill Devil Hills, N.C., on Sunday.

Napolitano said the government has begun damage assessments, especially in North Carolina, to determine next step response and recovery."

FEMA Administrator William Fugate said preliminary damage reports coming from North Carolina are mostly due to flooding. Fugate said there's also "lots" of tree damage and some highway damage. Fugate said it would take a few days for FEMA to come up with a dollar amount.

All of that said, the National Hurricane Center said the storm is not over and as it moves north into New England it can cause some more flooding.

Charles Lane from NPR member station WSHU reports that Suffolk County which encompasses Long Island "dodged a bullet" with Irene.

"Basically, the worst of it is over," he told Newscast. "Winds never got above 71 mph," which is below hurricane speed.

Lane said authorities are still worried that the winds will whip back up and cause more damage, but as of now most of the damage is minimal: fallen trees and limbs.

The big story, said Lane, will be power outages. Lane said more than 400,000 are powerless in the region and every time he checked that number was going up.

The New York Times reports that there is knee-deep water in lower Manhattan. Here's the good news:

The eye, or center of Irene, has been sitting on top of Manhattan for the past 30 minutes or so. As it passes, the winds will shift direction and with it the risk of storm surge subsides.

CNN's meteorologist Chad Myers reports that New York City may have escaped a worst case scenario. The big storm surge did not coincide with high tide and this may have prevented the subway system from being completely flooded.

Source: NPR