New York shut as Irene pummels US East Coast
Source: Agencies |
August 29, 2011, Monday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
Hurricane Irene weakened to a tropical storm yesterday but remained dangerous as it raced across a shutdown New York City, leaving behind a stunned East Coast where at least 11 people died, severe flooding was widespread and 4 million homes and businesses lost power.
Forecasters said Irene, while diminished in strength, was still powerful, carrying sustained winds of 104 kilometers per hour after its long journey up the coast, where it dropped 30 centimeters of rain on North Carolina and Virginia. The National Hurricane Center downgraded the storm after its winds fell below 119kph.
As the eye of the sprawling storm blew through America's largest city and Long Island to the east, it pushed a 2.5-meter Atlantic storm surge toward New York and sent salty floodwater flowing into lower Manhattan.
Forecasters said early yesterday that Irene was moving to north-northeast at 40kph as it pushed toward New England. Officials also warned of isolated tornadoes.
The huge storm - 805 kilometers wide - had threatened 65 million people up and down the Atlantic coast, possibly the largest number of Americans to be affected by a single storm.
New York was eerily quiet with much of the population staying indoors.
Weather had shut down the entire transit system for the first time. All the city's airports were closed, with more than 9,000 flights canceled. Broadway shows, baseball games and other events were all canceled or postponed.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg warned residents to avoid or evacuate low-lying areas.
Briny water from New York Harbor submerged parts of a Manhattan promenade. Water rushed over the wall of a marina in front of the New York Mercantile Exchange, where gold and oil are traded.
"You could see newspaper stands floating down the street," said Scott Baxter, a hotel doorman in the SoHo neighborhood.
Still, the storm didn't come close to inflicting the kind of damage that had been feared.
Forecasters had said there was a chance a storm surge along New York Harbor could send sea water streaming into the maze of underground vaults that hold the city's cables and pipes, knocking out power to thousands and crippling the city. Officials feared water would slosh into Wall Street, the ground zero location of the former Twin Towers and the luxury high-rise apartments of Battery Park City.
Battery Park City in the south of Manhattan was virtually deserted as rain and winds pummeled streets and whipped trees. Officials were bracing for floods that could submerge the promenade along the Hudson River. On Wall Street, sandbags were placed around subway grates near the East River because of fear of flooding.
In Times Square, shops boarded up windows and sandbags were stacked outside. Construction at the World Trade Center site came to a standstill.
But taxi cabs were open for business.
"I have to work. I would lose too much money," said cabbie Dwane Imame. "There have been many people, I have been surprised. They are crazy to be out in this weather."
Irene made landfall just after dawn on Saturday near Cape Lookout, North Carolina. Shorefront hotels and houses were lashed with waves, two piers were destroyed and at least one hospital was forced to run on generator power.
The number of airline passengers affected could easily be in the millions because so many flights make connections on the East Coast. More than 1 million of the homes and businesses without power were in Virginia and North Carolina, which bore the brunt of Irene's initial fury. Then the storm knocked out power overnight to hundreds of thousands in Washington, Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, the New York City area and Connecticut.
Eastern North Carolina got up to 35 centimeters of rain. Virginia's Hampton Roads area was drenched with at least 23 centimeters, and up to 40 centimeters in some places.
North Carolina Governor Beverly Perdue said Irene inflicted significant coastal damage, but some areas were unreachable because of high water or downed power lines.
A nuclear reactor at Maryland's Calvert Cliffs went offline automatically when winds knocked off a large piece of aluminum siding. Constellation Energy Nuclear Group said the facility and all employees were safe.
In Philadelphia, Mayor Michael Nutter declared a state of emergency, the first for the city since 1986.
"We are trying to save lives and don't have time for silliness," he said.
The storm hit Washington just days after an earthquake damaged some of the capital's most famous structures, including the Washington Monument.
In New Jersey, the Oyster Creek nuclear plant, just a few kilometers from the coast, shut down as a precaution as Irene closed in. And Boston's transit authority said all bus, subway and commuter rail service were suspended yesterday.
The deaths blamed on Irene included two children, an 11-year-old boy in Virginia killed when a tree crashed into his home and a North Carolina child who died in a car crash at an intersection where traffic lights were out. Four other people were killed by falling trees or tree limbs - two in separate Virginia incidents, one in North Carolina and one in Maryland. A surfer and another beachgoer in Florida were killed in heavy waves.
Forecasters said Irene, while diminished in strength, was still powerful, carrying sustained winds of 104 kilometers per hour after its long journey up the coast, where it dropped 30 centimeters of rain on North Carolina and Virginia. The National Hurricane Center downgraded the storm after its winds fell below 119kph.
As the eye of the sprawling storm blew through America's largest city and Long Island to the east, it pushed a 2.5-meter Atlantic storm surge toward New York and sent salty floodwater flowing into lower Manhattan.
Forecasters said early yesterday that Irene was moving to north-northeast at 40kph as it pushed toward New England. Officials also warned of isolated tornadoes.
The huge storm - 805 kilometers wide - had threatened 65 million people up and down the Atlantic coast, possibly the largest number of Americans to be affected by a single storm.
New York was eerily quiet with much of the population staying indoors.
Weather had shut down the entire transit system for the first time. All the city's airports were closed, with more than 9,000 flights canceled. Broadway shows, baseball games and other events were all canceled or postponed.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg warned residents to avoid or evacuate low-lying areas.
Briny water from New York Harbor submerged parts of a Manhattan promenade. Water rushed over the wall of a marina in front of the New York Mercantile Exchange, where gold and oil are traded.
"You could see newspaper stands floating down the street," said Scott Baxter, a hotel doorman in the SoHo neighborhood.
Still, the storm didn't come close to inflicting the kind of damage that had been feared.
Forecasters had said there was a chance a storm surge along New York Harbor could send sea water streaming into the maze of underground vaults that hold the city's cables and pipes, knocking out power to thousands and crippling the city. Officials feared water would slosh into Wall Street, the ground zero location of the former Twin Towers and the luxury high-rise apartments of Battery Park City.
Battery Park City in the south of Manhattan was virtually deserted as rain and winds pummeled streets and whipped trees. Officials were bracing for floods that could submerge the promenade along the Hudson River. On Wall Street, sandbags were placed around subway grates near the East River because of fear of flooding.
In Times Square, shops boarded up windows and sandbags were stacked outside. Construction at the World Trade Center site came to a standstill.
But taxi cabs were open for business.
"I have to work. I would lose too much money," said cabbie Dwane Imame. "There have been many people, I have been surprised. They are crazy to be out in this weather."
Irene made landfall just after dawn on Saturday near Cape Lookout, North Carolina. Shorefront hotels and houses were lashed with waves, two piers were destroyed and at least one hospital was forced to run on generator power.
The number of airline passengers affected could easily be in the millions because so many flights make connections on the East Coast. More than 1 million of the homes and businesses without power were in Virginia and North Carolina, which bore the brunt of Irene's initial fury. Then the storm knocked out power overnight to hundreds of thousands in Washington, Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, the New York City area and Connecticut.
Eastern North Carolina got up to 35 centimeters of rain. Virginia's Hampton Roads area was drenched with at least 23 centimeters, and up to 40 centimeters in some places.
North Carolina Governor Beverly Perdue said Irene inflicted significant coastal damage, but some areas were unreachable because of high water or downed power lines.
A nuclear reactor at Maryland's Calvert Cliffs went offline automatically when winds knocked off a large piece of aluminum siding. Constellation Energy Nuclear Group said the facility and all employees were safe.
In Philadelphia, Mayor Michael Nutter declared a state of emergency, the first for the city since 1986.
"We are trying to save lives and don't have time for silliness," he said.
The storm hit Washington just days after an earthquake damaged some of the capital's most famous structures, including the Washington Monument.
In New Jersey, the Oyster Creek nuclear plant, just a few kilometers from the coast, shut down as a precaution as Irene closed in. And Boston's transit authority said all bus, subway and commuter rail service were suspended yesterday.
The deaths blamed on Irene included two children, an 11-year-old boy in Virginia killed when a tree crashed into his home and a North Carolina child who died in a car crash at an intersection where traffic lights were out. Four other people were killed by falling trees or tree limbs - two in separate Virginia incidents, one in North Carolina and one in Maryland. A surfer and another beachgoer in Florida were killed in heavy waves.
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