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BINGHAMTON, N.Y. (CBS/AP) ― Two truckers were killed this morning when they drove into a chasm cut into Interstate 88 by drenching rains
that flooded homes, closed roads, cut power and forced the evacuation of thousands of people across upstate New York.

State police say the truck drivers were traveling in opposite directions when both crashed into a 50-foot-wide, 25-foot-deep chasm across all four lanes of I-88. It is not clear if the truckers even saw the jagged tear in the highway. The crash occured in the town of Sidney, 30 miles northeast of Binghamton.

Troopers say a 30-mile stretch of the highway is now closed between Exit Eight at Bainbridge in Chenango County to Exit 13 at Oneonta in Otsego County.

Saleem Cheeks, a spokesman for Gov. George Pataki, said a culvert just northeast of Sydney collapsed, leading to a washout of the road.

"The report we have is a road washout," Michalski said.

Elsewhere in upstate New York, the fire department in Sullivan County was carrying out evacuations by boat this morning. They requested state police helicopters to assist with the evacuations.

The deluge that washed out the nation's capital earlier this week and is blamed for four other deaths cut across upstate New York Tuesday and Wednesday. Though flood warnings were posted from the Catskills to the Adirondacks, the heaviest hit area was around Binghamton.

A house was reported floating down the rain-swollen Susquehanna River near the city on Wednesday morning and whole villages to the north in rural Delaware County were cut off by flood waters.

"We have significant flooding throughout the county," said Delaware County planning director Nicole Franzese.

"Widespread power outages, bridges washed out, roads washed out, the National Guard was operating all night."

Tuesday's rainfall was the most ever received in a 24-hour period at the Binghamton airport, said National Weather Service meteorologist Theodore Champney. A total of 4.05 inches fell during the day, breaking the former one-day record of 3.57 inches set on June 11, 2001, Champney said.

About 300 people were being cared for at a Red Cross emergency shelter set up at Binghamton University after the Susquehanna, Chenango and other rivers flooded. College officials said they expected more evacuees to arrive throughout the day. More homes were evacuated a few hours to the north, near the Mohawk River. A small bridge in Charlotteville in Schoharie County was closed and floodwaters had risen to the bottom of at least one other area
bridge.

Broome County emergency services director Michael Aswad reported a series of gas explosions in vacated homes in the town of Conklin, just south of Binghamton. There were no immediate reports of injuries.

Ten counties declared states of emergency amid the heavy rains: Broome, Cortland, Tioga, Chenango, Madison, Delaware, Montgomery, Schoharie, Otsego and Herkimer.

Michalski said Gov. George Pataki activated the National Guard for evacuation support and engineering. Pataki canceled a visit to New Hampshire today so he can deal with the emergency.

Dam experts were dispatched to the Binghamton area by the Department of Environmental Conservation for spot inspections. Binghamton Mayor Matthew Ryan said minor leaks have been reported in the floodwall that protects downtown from Susquehanna River.

In rural Schoharie County, about 90 miles northeast of Binghamton, a mudslide closed a road and prevented emergency crews from reaching residents of a home cut off by the debris. The county's emergency management office said there were no reports of injuries from the mudslide, but reported "quite a few roads" in the farming region were closed due to flooding.

"There is a lot of small localized flooding across the state because of these rains," Michalski said.

Michalski said emergency officials were tracking the storm as it moved east toward the Hudson Valley.

In the Catskills, the Esopus and Rondout creeks flooded, and the Delaware and Neversink rivers in Sullivan County neared flood stage in several spots. Homes near those rivers were also evacuated. The National Weather Service reported that the Delaware River at Port Jervis was at 18.4 feet, over flood stage of 18 feet. The river was expected to rise to near 24.3 feet by Thursday morning.

In April 1987, 10 people died when a section of the New York State Thruway west of Albany collapsed over the flooded Schoharie Creek following heavy rains that saw 7.5 inches fall in 18 hours.

As of earlier this year, about 28 percent of the state's bridges were rated as deficient, down from 38 percent in 1995.

(© 2006 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)