Tropical storm Nicole lashed the eastern United States with heavy rain and high winds again on Friday, causing more flooding and leaving one Pennsylvania woman dead in a weather-related traffic accident.

The woman drove her car into a rain-swollen creek, bringing the U.S. death toll from the storm to at least six, after five people were killed earlier this week in North Carolina.

The governor of North Carolina declared a state of emergency, with officials there warning that creeks and rivers would continue to rise even after the storm passed.

Flood warnings were in effect for parts of New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Massachusetts, North and South Carolina, Virginia, Maryland and Washington D.C.

The deluge that started on Wednesday set records in several areas, said Dan Peterson, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.

"Multiple rainfall records have been set for parts of New York, eastern Pennsylvania and North Carolina," he said.

The highest total was in Newport, North Carolina, with a multi-day total of 19 to 21.5 inches of rain, he said.

Rescue crews used boats and hovercraft to reach people stranded in homes and cars that were surrounded by fast-moving flood waters.

About 30,000 electric customers were without power in Connecticut and Massachusetts. The storm was expected to drop up to six inches of rain there.

Meteorologists reported wind speeds of up to 45 miles per hour in Massachusetts. Private weather forecaster Accuweather said the storm would have effects "similar to that of a hurricane."

Travelers at Boston Logan International Airport faced delays that were in part due to back-ups earlier in the day caused by heavier rains to the south, Judge said.

Flights were also delayed at John F. Kennedy International, Newark Liberty and LaGuardia airports in the New York metropolitan region.

A period of cool weather was expected to follow the storm, the National Weather Service said.

Nicole was a minimal tropical storm for just six hours on Wednesday, but the broad, ragged system poured heavy rain on Jamaica, the Cayman Islands, Cuba, south Florida and the Bahamas before continuing its northern path.

In mountainous Jamaica, three days of torrential rain from the system caused flash flooding that killed a dozen people. Eight more were missing and feared dead.

Nicole was the 14th named storm of the six-month Atlantic-Caribbean hurricane season, which runs through November 30.

Reporting by Svea Herbst-Bayliss and Scott Malone in Boston, additional reporting by Bernd Debusmann Jr., Jonathan Oatis and Chris Michaud in New York, Jane Sutton in Miami and Gene Cherry in Salvo, North Carolina; Editing by Ellen Wulfhorst, Greg McCune and Eric Walsh