WILKES-BARRE, Pa. – The remnants of Tropical Storm Lee poured water on top of the already soaked Northeast on Thursday, closing hundreds of roads and forcing evacuation orders for more than 100,000 people from the Susquehanna River’s worst flooding in nearly 40 years.

Most of the evacuations were ordered in and around Wilkes-Barre, where the levee system is just high enough to hold back the river if it crests at the predicted level. Even if the levees hold, 800 to 900 unprotected homes were in danger. If they fail, thousands of buildings could be lost.

“This is a scary situation,” said Stephen Bekanich, Luzerne County’s emergency management director. He and other officials were confident the levees would work but sought volunteers to lay sandbags on both sides of the river.

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WILKES-BARRE, Pa (Reuters) – Relentless rain caused catastrophic flooding in the eastern United States on Thursday, killing at least five people and forcing the evacuation of more than 130,000 more in three states.

Remnants of Tropical Storm Lee, days after slamming the Gulf Coast, swamped homes and businesses from Maryland to New England and dropped up to a foot of rain outside Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, which declared a state of emergency.

Flood warnings were in effect in northern Virginia, Delaware, Maryland and upstate New York and flood watches were underway in other areas from Massachusetts to Washington, D.C., according to the National Weather Service.

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MIAMI – Tropical Storm Nate was meandering Thursday in the Bay of Campeche off Mexico’s coast, where it was expected to bring rain and higher tides.

Meanwhile, the remnants of Tropical Storm Lee flooded roads and highways from Maryland to New England, adding to the misery of areas still recovering from Hurricane Irene.

Nate had maximum sustained winds near 45 mph (75 kph) with some strengthening forecast, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami. A tropical storm warning was in effect for Mexico’s coast from Chilitepec to Celestun.

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CHICAGO (Reuters) – Blizzards. Tornadoes. Floods. Record heat and drought, followed by wildfires.

The first eight months of 2011 have brought strange and destructive weather to the United States.

From the blizzard that dumped almost two feet of snow on Chicago, to killer tornadoes and heat waves in the south, to record flooding, to wildfires that have burned more than 1,000 homes in Texas in the last few days, Mother Nature has been in a vile and costly mood.

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NEW YORK – Northeastern states struggling to rebuild hundreds of roads and dozens of bridges in the wake of Hurricane Irene are facing another natural threat: winter.

The end of construction season is fast approaching in New England and upstate New York. By November it will be too cold to lay asphalt, and by December snow and ice will cover the mountains, leaving towns dangerously isolated and possibly dissuading tourists during the region’s ski season. Vermont officials said Monday they are renting quickly built, military-style temporary bridges as a stopgap measure.

“We’re going to be into winter before we know it,” Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin told reporters last week. “We’ve got a lot of highways to rebuild, bridges to rebuild, before snow starts to fly in Vermont.”

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