Hurricane Irene floodwaters going down in Vermont

KILLINGTON, Vt. -- Swollen rivers began falling Wednesday in much of the Northeast, allowing relief crews to reach the last of the tiny Vermont towns that had been entirely cut off from help by Hurricane Irene's fast-moving floodwaters.

The receding water eased the flooding that had paralyzed parts of the region and revealed more damage to homes, farms and businesses across the flood-scarred landscape. Repair estimates indicated that the storm would almost certainly rank among the nation's costliest natural disasters, despite packing a lighter punch than initially feared.

The National Guard continued to ferry supplies to mountain towns that had no electricity, no telephone service and limited transportation in or out.

Eight helicopters were expected to arrive Wednesday with food, blankets, tarps and drinking water.

Irene has been blamed for at least 45 deaths in the continental U.S., plus one in Puerto Rico and seven more in the Dominican Republic and Haiti.

If that death toll stands, it would be comparable to 1999's Hurricane Floyd, which caused 57 deaths in the U.S. and the Bahamas when moved through the Caribbean and charged up the East Coast into New England.

At the time, it was the deadliest U.S. hurricane in nearly 40 years but was later dwarfed by the 1,800 deaths caused by Katrina in 2005.

An estimate released immediately after Irene by the Kinetic Analysis Corp., a consulting firm that uses computer models to project storm losses, put the damage at $7.2 billion in eight states and Washington, D.C.

Connecticut Light and Power wires down guard Little Eagle Pementil monitors traffic and safety around down wires from Tropical Storm Irene, in Hebron, Conn., Wednesday, Aug. 31, 2011. Pementil, who is working 16 hour shifts, says some people have been understanding and stopped to ask her how long until their power is restored, while others have driven by yelling obscenities at her. Pementil said there has been a lot of progress and "we just can't twist two wires together and flip a switch." (AP Photo/Jessica Hill)

That would eclipse damage from Hurricane Bob, which caused $1 billion in damage in New England in 1991 or the equivalent of about $1.7 billion today, and Hurricane Gloria, which swept through the region in 1985 and left $900 million, or the equivalent of $1.9 billion today, according to the Insurance Information Institute.

Even as rivers finally stopped rising in Vermont, New Jersey and Connecticut, many communities and farm areas remained flooded, and officials said complete damage figures were nowhere in sight.

Some New Jersey towns resembled large, soggy yard sales as residents dragged flood-damaged belongings out onto lawns and into streets still muddied with floodwaters.

Large sections of Wallington, N.J. remained underwater after a cruel one-two punch: The Passaic River flooded the heart-shaped hamlet Sunday and then receded, only to rise again late Tuesday, forcing a new round of evacuations.

"Sunday morning, the water was only up to here," said Kevin O'Reilly, gesturing to where his front lawn used to meet the sidewalk. "My daughter and I took a walk around the block. We figured everything would be fine."

Only hours later, waves were bouncing off the house, and the basement windows were shattered.

"It sounded like Niagara Falls," O'Reilly said. "It just filled up immediately, and this is what we've been dealing with since then."

The town is accustomed to moderate flooding because it sits atop a network of underground streams that form a water table already saturated by record August rainfall.

Neighbors had started mucking out flooded basements and piling water-logged furniture and ruined possessions on the sidewalks when the river rose again. The town rushed to place garbage bins on higher ground so debris wouldn't be floating in the high water.

President Barack Obama planned to travel to the northern New Jersey town of Paterson on Sunday to survey damage.