ALSTEAD, N.H. (AP) – Residents of southwestern New Hampshire spent Monday checking on friends and relatives, pumping out basements and marveling at the destruction wrought by drenching rains and flooding during the weekend.

Three deaths were confirmed, a fourth was feared, and about a half-dozen people remained unaccounted for from floods that tore up highways, swept away houses and tossed boulders and even vehicles around like toys.

About 1,000 people were evacuated and Gov. John Lynch, who called the flooding the worst in a quarter century, sent in the National Guard.

The rain started in much of the state Friday afternoon and evening, causing widespread flooding by early Sunday. Rainfall totals for the storm included 10.8 inches in Hinsdale, 10.5 in Keene and 9 in Gilford, farther to the north.

Alstead, population about 1,760, was among the worst hit communities in southwestern New Hampshire, where Keene, with about 23,000 residents, is the biggest city.

“I’ve seen pictures of earthquakes that don’t look as bad as this road,” Alstead resident Glen Frank, 54, said Monday of Route 123.

Floodwaters tore huge slabs of pavement off the secondary highway and dug gullies 12 feet deep and 20 feet wide for miles. The destruction was one of numerous obstacles to quickly restoring power and telephone service.

Verizon said 911 emergency phone service was restored, but the company said about 55 to 60 utility poles were either broken or downed along Route 123 in Alstead taking electric and telephone service with them.

The company said most phone service in the area was restored by Monday afternoon and additional lines were installed at the Marlow Fire Department to handle the increased volume of calls.

“Five miles of utility poles were taken out along Route 123 in Alstead and there’s no road left. So where do we put the poles?” asked David Graves of National Grid, which owns the local power utility.

Graves said 1,800 customers were without power at the peak of the storm in Alstead, Marlow and Acworth. Customers of Public Service Company of New Hampshire also were without power in Keene, where flooding made it too dangerous to restore power in some areas.

A man and woman, both 20, died after driving over a washed-out bridge in Unity on Sunday. Their bodies were found in their car in the Little Sugar River.

A man’s body was recovered late Sunday when floodwaters receded from a cornfield next to the Cold River in Langdon, but he had not been identified by Monday afternoon.

In Antrim, authorities were pessimistic about the fate of a kayaker on the North Branch River. Rescue workers tried to reach him as he clung to a tree Sunday, but he was washed away before they could.

Three Alstead residents were among those unaccounted for, including Tim and Sally Canfield, who lived next to the river. Sally Canfield’s brother, George Butler, told The Keene Sentinel the couple had been told to evacuate their home twice during the night, but stayed. Butler said when he walked through the woods later on Sunday to look, the house was gone.

“They probably didn’t know what hit them because the house is just gone. There’s not even a foundation,” Butler said.

Dams that overflowed or came close during the weekend were in good shape Monday, but authorities were worried about more rain in the forecast through midweek.

“At the moment, we are satisfied that they’re all in good shape,” state emergency management Director Bruce Cheney said as he toured flooded parts of Keene. “Our concern is that additional water may change that.”

The National Weather Service rated the chance of showers at 50 percent to 70 percent through Friday. On the bright side, the showers were expected to be light, at least until Thursday, said Art Lester, a meteorological technician in Gray, Maine.

Would heavier rain on Thursday cause flooding again?

“It really depends on how fast all this drains back down,” Lester said of rivers and brooks still swollen from the weekend. But, he said, “it wouldn’t take as much as we got this time to renew the problems.”

Keene was awash in the sounds of generators and pumps Monday as Lynch and Cheney toured the city.

“It’s nice to see the support and all the help,” said Darcey Zecha, whom Lynch visited outside the home where she grew up and where her mother still lives. The basement had six feet of water in it.

State transportation Commissioner Carol Murray estimated it will take months to repair the damage to bridges and roads. She said she put the state’s bridge inspectors on standby to assess damage statewide when the waters recede.

Murray said engineers worried that raging waters had undermined roadways that looked safe.

“It’s the stuff you really can’t see that makes you uneasy,” she said.

Lynch had flown to Europe for a trade mission Saturday, but turned around and flew back to take charge and declare a state of emergency.

Lynch asked for a federal disaster declaration for the area, which would make it eligible for federal reconstruction help. The last such declaration for flooding was in August 2003.

AP-ES-10-10-05 1711EDT