PROVIDENCE -- Residents of Rhode Island braced Monday for days of heavy rain and more flooding.
"This could be some of the most serious flooding that any of us has seen in a long, long time," Gov. Don Carcieri said.
State emergency officials said residents in flood-prone areas need to consider evacuating.
"If you have had flooding in the past -- and specifically last week -- you know you're going to have flooding this time, and maybe even more than you had last time," said Gen. Robert Bray of the Rhode Island National Guard.
Police went door to door on River Road in West Warwick advising people that a voluntary evacuation order was in effect.
Lori O'Shea has not been allowed to return home since the flooding two weeks ago.
"It's really aggravating when you want to come home and you can't," she said.
Emergency management officials are also keeping an eye on roads, bridges and dams that made it through the last flood but could be in danger this time around.
"If last time that river cleared the underbelly of a bridge by 6 inches, and now it gets up to the superstructure of the bridge, that could have significance consequence back upstream where it could push the waters out even further," said J. David Smith, executive director of the state Emergency Management Agency.
The Pawtuxet River could crest higher than the record it set earlier this month. The weather service predicts the river will crest at 16.1 feet on Wednesday. That is more than a foot above the previous record crest of 14.98 feet set March 15.
The Blackstone River is also expected to reach near-record levels. Officials said it could creast at about 16 feet in Woonsocket. The flood level is 9 feet. The Blackstone crested at a record 22 feet in 1955 because of Hurricane Diane.
The federal government declared several areas of Rhode Island a major disaster after flooding and storms that swept through the state earlier this month.
Carcieri's office said Monday that President Barack Obama has approved the governor's request to declare major disasters in Kent, Newport, Providence, and Washington counties. His office sent the request late last week.
The decision means the federal government will help provide money and support for people affected by the flooding. The governor's office said potential damage from this week's storm could be covered under the disaster declaration.
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