WASHINGTON – Hurricane Irene is now in the history books, to be remembered as a storm that could have been a whole lot worse. Even so, flooding left in Irene’s wake had experts Monday revising cost estimates upward, now expected to exceed $7 billion in the United States.

“We estimate the overall storm losses around $7 billion, insured losses about $3 billion,” said Jan Vermeiren, the CEO of Kinetic Analysis Corp., a risk-modeling firm in Maryland that late last week had envisioned $20 billion in losses before Irene weakened.

Irene came on shore in North Carolina as a Category 1 hurricane, held steady as it passed Maryland and Delaware beaches late Saturday and weakened to a tropical storm by the time it struck Manhattan on Sunday.

Still, its romp up the East Coast left a trail of wind damage from North Carolina to Rhode Island. Heavy, prolonged rains caused the worst flooding in decades in New England states such as Connecticut and Vermont.

Flooding will continue for several days, according to Craig Fugate, the administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

“We still have rivers that have yet to crest. The River Forecast Center for the Northeast was reporting that some of these rivers may not crest for two to three days,” Fugate said Monday during a White House briefing. “So the extent of impacts we still won’t know, but, again, many of these areas have been dealing with very dangerous flooding. Some of it has resulted in the loss of life.”

The American Red Cross said Monday that it had housed at least 27,000 people along the East Coast in temporary shelters because of Irene and appealed for blood donations, as it was 2,100 donors short of needs. CEO Gail McGovern also pleaded for money donations.

“Frankly, the Red Cross response is going to cost millions of dollars,” she said.

TV sets across the nation blared images Monday of swollen rivers cresting over bridges in Vermont. Flooding was so bad in parts of the state that the threat forced FEMA on Monday to close disaster-recovery centers in Barre and St. Johnsbury that had been opened after a similar natural disaster in May.

In a statement marking the sixth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, which caused more than $100 billion in damages, President Barack Obama pledged continued cooperation with state and local governments in the wake of Irene.

“Those response efforts are ongoing and we will continue that partnership, responding as quickly and effectively as possible, for as long as necessary, until the affected communities are back on their feet,” the president said.

Many local governments may find rebuilding a challenge, giving the plunging revenues of recent years.

“The weak economy means local governments will be less able to help, and small businesses will be footing the bill,” Vermeiren said.

Monday was a day for measuring losses. By Kinetic’s estimates, New Jersey and New York led all states in total damages, with estimates for losses respectively of $2.1 billion and $2 billion _ about 40 percent of each of them insured losses.

North Carolina ranked third, with an estimated $1.4 billion in damages. This modeling didn’t include Vermont.

“Flooding is the big unknown here, and that makes estimate losses quite difficult,” said Vermeiren, adding that flood damages in Connecticut and Vermont could result in another $1 billion in losses.

From an insurance standpoint, Irene won’t be too costly, with insured losses estimated at $2 billion to $8 billion. By contrast, insurance companies have paid an estimated $40.6 billion on 1.7 million claims for damage from Hurricane Katrina, according to the Insurance Information Institute.

The cleanup along the Northeast may create a temporary bump in construction-sector employment, but it won’t amount to much. The minuses simply outweigh the pluses.

“I think you get immediate opportunity for cleanup companies and roofers and emergency repairs to buildings and roads … but in terms of being a net positive for construction overall, no,” said Ken Simonson, chief economist for Associated General Contractors of America, the trade group for large contractors. “The major replacement work tends to take a very long time. Going back to Hurricane Andrew and the impact it had on south Florida, the evidence is that it took 10 or 15 years to replace the bulk of the housing destroyed there.”

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