Although the storm has long since petered out, officials warned the toll would likely rise as rescue workers probed regions where flood waters were receding.

"There will be others counted, yes," said a spokesman for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, who declined to be identified.

More than 2.5 million people remained without power in the affected area, he added.

President George W. Bush Saturday declared the state of Delaware a disaster area, making it eligible to apply for federal aid. He earlier made similar declarations for Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina and the city of Washington.

In North Carolina, where the storm made landfall Thursday, Isabel sliced a barrier island in two, stranding more than 1,000 residents, said Jane Pritchard, a spokeswoman for North Carolina's electrical cooperatives.

"The hurricane cut a new inlet through Hatteras, basically amputated the southern quarter of the island, created a new island," she said.

The area's only road, Highway 12, was buried under as much as a meter (three feet) of sand.

The hurricane toppled thousands of trees and power lines in the four-state swath, packing 160-kilometer-an-hour (100-mile-an-hour) winds at its peak.

Roadways remained blocked by torn branches, uprooted trees and downed electrical wires throughout the region.

Power companies brought in hundreds of workers from as far away as Texas and Florida to restore power to millions in Virginia, Maryland and North Carolina.

By late Thursday, Isabel was downgraded to a tropical storm, but went on to knock out power as far north as Canada by Friday.

Most of the 28 deaths during the storm were caused by traffic accidents and fallen trees and utility poles.

A North Carolina electric company mourned the loss of a lineman killed Thursday while trying to restore power at Isabel's height.

"There was a lot of sadness," Gary Zajac, a spokesman for the Carter Craven electrical cooperative, told AFP. Still, that did not stop repairs.

"The guys knew what they had to do, and they kept working," Zajac said.

In Maryland, a man died when a falling power pole hit his car. Two other deaths in Maryland were also attributed to the storm.

In Pennsylvania, a man died when strong winds blew his car off the road. And a man drowned off the Rhode Island coast after high waves swept him from the shore.

The storm disrupted transport and shut down the federal government Thursday and Friday.

Washington's metro transit system was closed Thursday. Reagan National Airport and other smaller airports throughout the region also shut during the storm and hundreds of flights were cancelled.

Virginia's Dominion power company said it could take up to a week to connect all of its customers.

"This most certainly will be a marathon effort," company spokesman Elmore Lockley told AFP.

Power companies handed out dry ice to customers to help preserve food, but many -- including the Baltimore area's BGE -- had run out of it by Saturday.

Some Virginia residents were told to boil drinking water because electrically powered purification equipment was offline.

Along a chain of barrier islands off the North Carolina coast, dozens of houses were left at precarious angles and roofs were ripped off.

The cost of the massive cleanup operation is expected to run to several billion dollars, according to Philip Crowley, a spokesman for the Insurance Information Institute in New York.

TERRA.WIRE