Metro

Swept-away horror

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Two New Jersey residents, including a woman trapped in her car, were among at least 20 people killed as Hurricane Irene tore through the East Coast before heading to Canada.

In the Garden State, where beaches were battered and boardwalks were broken up, a Salem County woman called 911 early yesterday after her car was swept away by floodwaters.

A State Police SWAT team rushed to Route 40 in Pilesgrove, but not before the rising waters submerged the car and killed the 20-year-old driver behind the wheel.

Cops also said a man in Kearny drowned. He was identified Monday morning as 47-year-old postal worker Ronald Dawkins, from Orange, New Jersey. Dawkins abandoned his vehicle when it became partly submerged, then tried to wade through rising water to a postal facility around 8:30 a.m. Sunday.

Witnesses tell police he stepped into a hidden drainage creek where there was 10 or 12 feet of water.

A co-worker dove in to try to rescue Dawkins, but couldn’t reach him.

The man’s body was found about two hours later.

COMPLETE IRENE COVERAGE

PHOTOS: HURRICANE IRENE

Gov. Chris Christie expressed his condolences during a news conference, but said damage wasn’t as extensive as predicted.

“We do not see the type of wider devastation that people feared from the storm,” Christie said.

“I was struck yesterday by the positive attitude of the people at the shelters. I was expecting to have a lot of angry people, but there were people that were grateful that we got them out of harm’s way.”

Christie was one of many East Coast governors assessing storm damage from Dade County, Fla., to Danbury, Conn.

Officials said the storm had killed at least 21 people on the East Coast — including a Connecticut woman who died in a house fire ignited by a downed power line.

Elsewhere, four people in Virginia were victims of fallen trees. And there were deaths in North Carolina, Florida and Maryland as well.

A downgraded Tropical Storm Irene left many of New England’s coastal states relatively unscathed — but inflicted some of the worst damage on landlocked Vermont, where severe flooding was a huge concern.

“Right now, evacuation is our main issue,” said Robert Stirewalt, a spokesman for the Vermont Emergency Management Agency.

Even as the storm moved away, President Obama warned that the peril remained.

Saturated ground could mean the downing of more trees and power lines — and the potential for more deaths.

“I want people to understand this is not over,” Obama said at a White House news conference. “Many Americans are still at serious risk of power outages and flooding.”

Obama began his day yesterday with a video teleconference at 10:30 a.m. in the White House Situation Room so he could receive an update on the impact of Irene.

In the conference, Obama asked Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Craig Fugate to stay in touch with governors of affected states.