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Torrential rain has flooded entire streets in several cities in the northeastern United States – like here in Vermont
Photo: CJ GÜNTHER / EPA
The death toll after torrential rain in the US state of Pennsylvania has risen to five. Two small children, aged nine months and two years, are now still missing, local police said. Among the dead was the mother of the two children. The victims had been swept away in their cars on a road on Saturday afternoon.
The family was traveling together in their car when they were surprised by the flood, a police spokesman said, according to NBC News. The father of the children, as well as the couple's four-year-old son and grandmother were also in the car.
When the water rose, any adult would have carried a child when leaving the car. The father was able to bring himself and his son to safety, but the two women were swept away by the water, according to the spokesman. The grandmother survived, the mother was later found dead.
Authorities do not expect to find any survivors
The accident had occurred on the border with the US state of New Jersey near the city of Trenton. It was a family from the southern state of South Carolina who had been visiting the north, police said.
"This was an incredible shock for all the families affected, all first responders and for our community as a whole," police wrote of the accident. Tim Brewer of the local fire department had previously said that around 17 centimeters of rain had fallen in less than an hour. In his 44-year career, he has never seen anything like it. The authorities had made it clear that they did not expect to find any survivors.
The U.S. is currently being hit by weather extremes. While millions of people in the south of the country are groaning under a heat wave, there have been repeated severe floods in the northeast in recent days.
lmd/dpa