Flooding Forces 100K to Evacuate Pa., Drenches NY

Pennsylvania officials have issued a mandatory evacuation order for the more than 100,000 people living along the Susquehanna River, one of several East Coast rivers flooding over thanks to the remnants of Tropical Storm Lee, the AP reports. The river is expected to crest at 41 feet by 8pm. “We want people to heed our order and leave,” a county commissioner tells the Standard Speaker. “It’s significant. We want them to leave.” Elsewhere in the soggy Northeast:

• Thousands more are expected to evacuate in Eastern New York as well, as the Hudson and Mohawk are expected to spill their banks, according to the Times Union.
• All bridges in the upstate New York city of Binghamton are closed, and evacuation orders are in effect. "You need to move now," an official tells the Press & Sun-Bulletin. The Army Corps of Engineers has shut two major dams, and the area's main sewage plant is offline because of flooding. Officials are warning residents to conserve clean water in the event filtration plants are breached.
• The flooding has already been blamed for at least three deaths in Pennsylvania, according to WGAL 8; one man was bailing water out of his basement when the walls collapsed, killing him. A woman, meanwhile, drowned in her car, while another motorist was hit by a mini-van while trying to warn vehicles about the flood.

(More flooding stories.)