In New Hampshire, Federal Emergency Management Agency officials inspected damage from floods that killed at least seven people. Authorities raised the death toll after four people missing since the weekend were presumed dead.

A flood watch was issued for Connecticut, Rhode Island and central and western Massachusetts, where 75 people in a swamped mobile home park lost their homes this week when a river crested.

National Weather Service meteorologist Neal Strauss forecast steady rain in the Northeast through late Friday or early Saturday with scattered showers over the weekend.

"We usually don't see this overall weather pattern this time of year. It usually occurs in the spring," he said.

Strauss's agency issued a flood watch for New York City and its suburbs through Thursday night after showers dumped almost five inches (12 cm) of rain in New York's Central Park in the 24 hours that ended on Thursday morning.

Airlines canceled about 80 flights at New York's LaGuardia airport, a Port Authority spokesman said.

Flights arriving at New York's John F. Kennedy airport faced delays of up to an hour and up to three hours at Newark in New Jersey, where about 12 flights were canceled.

In New Hampshire, where floods washed out five bridges over the weekend and left up to 18 families homeless, Gov. John Lynch is seeking $5 million in federal aid to help worst-hit regions.

Lynch declared a state of emergency on Sunday and dispatched 500 National Guard troops to flooded districts.

But New Hampshire lifted a flood watch after the intensity of the rain thinned in that state on Thursday. "We're certainly not out of the woods but it doesn't look like there is going to be a repeat of the flooding episode," New Hampshire Bureau of Emergency Management spokesman Jim Van Dongen said.

Flood watches were also issued for a number of towns across New Jersey, where rivers were swollen and the ground was saturated. Gale warnings were issued for coastal areas and beaches suffered tidal flooding and erosion.

Massachusetts Republican Gov. Mitt Romney, considering a bid for the White House in 2008 and stung by criticism that he responded slowly to flood damage in his state, has said some of Massachusetts's $25 million in aid for Hurricane Katrina victims could be used to repair damage.