Heavy rain, wind hit LI; storms leave 43 dead nationwide

Long Island battened down the hatches last night as a storm system that killed at least 43 in the Plains and South rattled the area, prompting wind and coastal flood advisories.

The cold front lashed the Island with wind gusts of up to 50 mph, and was expected to bring high tides 1 foot to 2 feet higher than normal and possible beach erosion, meteorologists at the National Weather Service in Upton said.

Parts of the Island were forecast to get more than an inch of rain, meteorologist Lauren Nash said. Heavier rain -- up to 2 inches -- was forecast for north and west of New York City.

Sustained winds of 20 to 30 mph were likely, with the advisory set to remain in place until 2 a.m. in Nassau County and 6 a.m. in Suffolk. The coastal flood warning was issued from 6 p.m. and remained until midnight, through high tide cycles.

The Long Island Power Authority reported that 667 homes remained without power late Sunday morning. Some arriving flights at Kennedy and Newark airports were delayed or diverted, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

But despite the rough weather, Long Islanders experienced the softer side of a furious storm system that kicked up tornadoes, flash floods and hail as big as softballs in other parts of the country. The storms have left at least 43 people dead on a rampage that has stretched for days as it barreled from Oklahoma to North Carolina and Virginia.

Emergency crews searched for victims in hard-hit swaths of North Carolina, where 62 tornadoes were reported from the worst spring storm in two decades to hit the state. Ten people were confirmed dead in Bertie County, county manager Zee Lamb said.

In the capital city of Raleigh, three family members died in a mobile home park, said Wake County spokeswoman Sarah Willamson-Baker. At that trailer park, residents lined up outside Sunday and asked police guarding the area when they might get back in.

Peggy Mosley, 54, who has lived in the park for 25 years, said she was prepared when the storm bore down on the trailer park. She gathered small pillows and other material and hunkered down in her small bathroom.

"I went and got into my small bathroom and just sat in there and cried and prayed until it was over," Mosley said.

Gov. Beverly Perdue said Sunday that state emergency management officials told her more than 20 were killed by the storms in North Carolina. However, the far-flung damage made it difficult to confirm the total number of deaths.

The emergency management agency said it had reports of 22 fatalities, and media outlets and government agency tallies did not all match. The National Weather Service said 23 died in the state, including one in Johnston County, but an emergency management chief there told The Associated Press nobody died in that area.

The governor planned to travel by helicopter to hard-hit areas of the state Sunday to survey damage.

The night before, Perdue announced there was an unspecified number of confirmed deaths in Bladen, Cumberland, Lee and Wake counties.

Meanwhile, at least four deaths were reported in Virginia. Authorities warned the toll was likely to rise further Sunday as searchers probed shattered homes and businesses.

The storm claimed its first lives Thursday night in Oklahoma, then roared through Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia. Authorities have said seven died in Arkansas; seven in Alabama; two in Oklahoma; and one in Mississippi.

In North Carolina, the governor declared a state of emergency and said the 62 tornadoes reported were the most since March 1984, when a storm system spawned 22 twisters in the Carolinas that killed 57 people — 42 in North Carolina — and injured hundreds.