President Barack Obama will travel to New Jersey on Sunday to survey the damage from Hurricane Irene.

The White House announced Wednesday that the president will visit the northern New Jersey town of Patterson, where flooding continues to cause problems as the state's rain-swollen rivers crest and slowly recede.

Rivers have finally stopped rising in New Jersey, Vermont, and Connecticut. But many communities and farm areas are still under water, and some communities remain completely cut off.

At least 178,000 people in New Jersey are still without electrical power. About 10,000 people who evacuated are waiting to return to their homes.

Repair estimates suggest Irene will rank among the nation's costliest natural disasters, with billion of dollars in damage.

Irene made landfall in North Carolina on Saturday as a Category 1 hurricane and worked its way up the East Coast as a tropical storm.

At least 45 deaths in 13 states have been attributed to the storm.