After Hurricane Irene in 2011, a couple of Bruce Springsteen fans were visiting the New Jersey Shore town of Belmar, a defining district of the so-called Irish Riviera.

The battered US East Coast took the first steps back towards daily routine today, even as rescuers combed areas strewn with debris and scarred by floods and fire.

Police in the US are today searching for a colleague who is still at large after shooting dead five of his neighbours and wounding two others in two towns in New Jersey.