Hurricane Irene led to the deaths of at least 26 people in eight states.

Hurricane Irene led to the deaths of at least 26 people in eight
states:
CONNECTICUT:
- In Prospect, 89-year-old Charlotte Levine was killed early
Sunday when a falling tree limb pulled power lines onto her house
and started a fire.
- In Bristol, 46-year-old Shane Seaver died after he and another
man went canoeing down a flooded street and the canoe capsized.
Seaver's body washed ashore late Sunday night in Plainville. The
other man survived.
FLORIDA:
- In Volusia County, 55-year-old Frederick Fernandez died
Saturday off New Smyrna Beach after he was tossed off his board by
massive waves caused by Irene. The Orlando Sentinel reports the
high school teacher had a large cut on his head, apparently from
hitting the sea floor.
- In Flagler County, 55-year-old tourist James Palmer of New
Jersey died Saturday in rough surf. Family members say they lost
sight of him after he waded into the surf in North Florida. He was
pulled to shore and his wife attempted CPR, but he was pronounced
dead at the hospital.
MARYLAND:
- In Queen Anne's County, Md., 85-year-old Anne Bell was killed
when a tree knocked a chimney through the glass roof of the sunroom
where she and her son were sitting. They'd gone out into the
sunroom after the power went out in her Queenstown home. Bell was
struck by debris, causing severe trauma.
NEW JERSEY
- Celena Sylvestri, 20, of Quinton, called her boyfriend and
then 911 early Sunday seeking help getting out of her flooded car
in Pilesgrove, police said. Her body was found eight hours later in
the vehicle, which was about 150 feet off the road, police said.
- Ronald Dawkins, a 47-year-old postal worker, abandoned his
vehicle when it became partly submerged in water early Sunday,
Kearny police said. He then tried to wade through rising water, and
witnesses said he stepped into a hidden drainage creek. His body
was found about two hours later.
NEW YORK
- A man in his 50s was electrocuted in Spring Valley when he
tried to help a child who had gone into a flooded street with
downed wires. The child was in very serious condition at
Westchester Medical Center's burn unit, said a spokesman for the
Rockland County Emergency Operations Center.
- State police said they recovered the body of a woman who
apparently drowned after she fell into Onesquethaw Creek in New
Scotland, near Albany.
- Police in Suffolk County say 68-year-old Joseph Rocco of East
Islip drowned while windsurfing in Bellport Bay.
- Two men were swept down the Croton River on Sunday evening
after their inflatable boat capsized, and one of them died after
being pulled down river by heavy currents, Croton police said.
NORTH CAROLINA:
- In Nash County, a man was killed after a tree limb fell on him
outside his home Saturday morning as outer bands from the storm
brought near hurricane-force gusts inland.
- Goldsboro police say a 15-year-old girl died Saturday
afternoon after the SUV carrying her and family members collided
with another SUV at an intersection where Irene had knocked out
power to traffic lights. She was one of four family members thrown
from the vehicle; the family was returning to northern Virginia
from Myrtle Beach, S.C.
- Authorities in Pitt County say a man was found dead in his
home after Irene's winds toppled a tree onto his house.
- Another man in Pitt County drove through standing water, went
off a road and died after striking a tree on Saturday.
- A mother in Sampson County died Saturday morning when a tree
fell on a car carrying her and two family members.
- New Hanover County deputies on Sunday afternoon recovered the
body of Melton Robinson, Jr., who had been missing since falling or
jumping into the Cape Fear River as storms from Irene reached North
Carolina on Friday night.
PENNSYLVANIA
- Michael Scerarko, 44, was killed Sunday when a tree fell on
him in his yard. Scerarko, of Stroudsburg, pushed his son out of
the way, but could not get out of the way himself, police said.
- A 58-year-old Harrisburg man was killed Sunday morning when a
tree toppled onto his tent, state police said. The man was one of
about 20 people at a party on private property in East Hanover
Township, Dauphin County, some of whom who decided to sleep
outside.
- A man in a camper was crushed by a tree in northeastern
Pennsylvania's Luzerne County, state emergency management officials
said. Police found his body shortly before 11 a.m. Sunday.
- A motorist was killed when he lost control of his car on the
Pennsylvania Turnpike in Carbon County, skidded over an embankment
and hit a tree. State officials attributed the accident to the
storm.
- The body of 64-year-old Patricia O'Neill, of East Norriton,
was discovered Sunday afternoon in the Wissahickon Creek, around a
half mile from where her car was found in the flooded waterway.
Whitemarsh Township police said her family reported her missing
after she didn't show up at work.
VIRGINIA:
- Newport News authorities report that 11-year-old Zahir
Robinson was killed when a large tree crashed through his apartment
shortly after noon.
- In Brunswick County, a tree fell across a car Saturday
afternoon, killing 67-year-old James Blackwell of Brodnax. The
driver was taken to the hospital with minor injuries.
- Chesterfield County police say a man died at a Hopewell
hospital Saturday after a tree fell on a house that he was in.
- A King William County man, 57-year-old William P. Washington,
was killed when a tree fell on him as he was cutting another tree
on Saturday night. Washington was trying to get home at the height
of the storm when a fallen tree blocked his path on a road, about
four miles from his home, and he and another motorist tried to
clear the way.



(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)