A fire has destroyed at least 50 homes in a flooded neighbourhood in the New York City borough of Queens, officials said today.

The Susquehanna River and its tributaries in Pennsylvania and New York are receding from some of the highest floodwaters ever seen.

Levees around the vulnerable city of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, held against the swollen Susquehanna River today, ending an evacuation order for 200,000 people.

Up to 200,000 people in the Wilkes-Barre area of Pennsylvania were ordered to evacuate their homes because of rising water on the Susquehanna River, swelled by a record-breaking deluge that has killed at least 12 people across the US North-East.