Matt Rourke, Associated Press
	Kim Lorah, right and her mother Claudia Reccek clean mud brought into her home by recently receded flood waters in Easton, Pa., yesterday. Thousands of structures up and down the Delaware and Susquehanna rivers and their tributaries were inundated for the third time in two years this week, causing tens of millions of dollars in damage. MORE COVERAGE AP Interactive: The Northeast Floods

HARRISBURG -- President Bush yesterday declared eight counties in eastern and northeastern Pennsylvania to be a federal disaster area because of devastating floods.

Gov. Ed Rendell thanked the president and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, saying, "this will bring a tremendous amount of supplies and resources to help these counties as they respond to severe flooding that damaged thousands of homes and businesses.''

The designated counties are Bradford, Bucks, Columbia, Luzerne, Northampton, Northumberland, Susquehanna and Wyoming. The declaration qualifies them for funds to remove flood debris and for emergency protection measures.

Mr. Rendell, while pleased, didn't get all he wanted. He had asked federal officials to declare 34 Pennsylvania counties as disaster areas.

The governor will climb into a helicopter this morning and spend several hours doing aerial surveillance of several flood-damaged towns, including Easton, Yardley and Bloomsburg.

"The good news about the flooding is that we are no longer in any life-threatening situations,'' Mr. Rendell said yesterday.

He had previously said that five or six Pennsylvanians apparently perished in the floods that struck the Susquehanna, Schuylkill and Delaware rivers this week. He didn't have an update on that figure yesterday. Damage estimates weren't ready yet.

What state troopers, National Guardsmen and local officials are doing now, he said, "is trying to clear access roads that remain blocked and helping people who, while not in any danger, are virtually trapped in their houses or neighborhoods because there are holes filled with water in front of their houses or roads are blocked.''

Maj. Gen. Jessica Wright, National Guard commander in Pennsylvania, said about 900 of her troops were still at work helping clean up after the flooding.

Mr. Rendell said the state has spent about $100,000 in distributing water, ice, cots and military-style Meals Ready to Eat to those forced from their homes by the swollen river waters.

The state is "confident we can access additional funds'' from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, he said, and has been given a pledge of up to $1 million from Pew Charitable Trusts of Philadelphia to help flood victims.

Residents of Wilkes-Barre, Bloomsburg, Reading and other towns who were forced from their homes by flooded rivers this week are slowly going home, he said, though in some cases, there is mud and debris for them to clean out.

He said state officials will soon begin an assessment stage to come up with financial estimates of flood damage and then will begin helping individual homeowners, businesses, towns and counties.

In a related matter, state environmental officials said they are waiving, for about two weeks, the state fees normally charged to landfill operators as a way of speeding cleanup efforts after the flooding. This has happened in previous disaster situations, officials said.

The Department of Environmental Protection waiver does not apply to fees owed by landfills to municipalities. That is a matter to be decided by each local government.

"Removing flood debris as quickly as possible is vital to protecting public health and the environment. It will also help our communities return to normal,'' said DEP Secretary Kathleen McGinty.

Also, DEP's six regional offices can, for about two weeks, permit landfills and waste facilities to operate beyond their normal hours and to suspend normal volume limits for flood-related waste.