Rain continued to pelt a weary New England as a massive storm continued with many residents employing boats where they are used to driving their cars, according to recent reports from KNX 1070 Newsradio.

So far, dams are holding in the area but flood waters continue to fill basements and, in some cases, surged over rooftops.

Rainfall figures topped one foot in some areas as thousands in northeastern Massachusetts abandoned submerged neighborhoods in what has been called the worst flooding in the past 70 years.

"It seemed almost Biblical,'' Gov. Mitt Romney said Tuesday on ABC's ``Good Morning America.'' "We're sort of making jokes about Noah and taking two of each kind of animal because we haven't ever seen rain like this.''

The governor also appeared on CBS's Early Show, telling viewers, "We still have dams holding back a lot more water than they were designed to carry. This is what you can expect when you've got a storm that's bigger than anything we've faced in 70 years.''

Peter Judge, a spokesman for the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency, said the worst of the flooding appeared to be over, with the storm expected to move out of the area by Wednesday.

Crews in Lowell cruised flooded streets in boats, using bullhorns to urge residents to evacuate.

More than 600 New Hampshire roads have been damaged, destroyed or inundated by water. In Maine, dozens or roads and bridges were washed out and a pair of dams along the swollen Salmon Falls River in Lebanon were threatened.

Millions of gallons of water were released in Webster, New Hampshire when rising water eroded a local dam, forcing the evacuation of a number of families.

The flood water also overwhelmed sewage systems and drowned waste water treatment plants.

The statewide damage was expected to reach the tens of millions of dollars, Romney said Tuesday. He said officials were also concerned about the long-term environmental impact of the sewage on shellfish beds.

"This is gonna be a big financial crisis for a lot of people,'' he said.

Source: EPA/AP