PATERSON, New Jersey (Reuters) – Emergency workers plucked dozens of residents from doorways and windows as Hurricane Irene’s floodwaters rose on Tuesday, swallowing homes, submerging cars and turning the streets of this working class town into lakes.
While Hurricane Irene’s paralyzing rampage through the U.S. Northeast largely spared New York City, it caused the worst flooding in decades in inland areas of New York state, New Jersey and Vermont. The storm has been blamed for the deaths of about 40 people.
Search and rescue teams working in Paterson, New Jersey have pulled nearly 600 people from homes in recent days with the most intense efforts on Tuesday when the Passaic River measured 13 feet above flood stage, the highest level since 1903, said Paterson police Sgt. Alex Popov.
Firefighters rescued some by boat and the National Guard saved others by truck, taking them to a Red Cross shelter.
“Some are standing there in the doorway. Some are coming out of their windows,” Popov said.
“It’s raging,” he said of the Passaic, which runs through the center of town, about 20 miles outside New York City.
Along the banks of the swollen, rushing brown river, residents sought to save what they could from homes submerged in waist-high
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