Jim Brumm, Reuters
August 27, 2011, 10:10 am
•US braces for impact
A quarter of a million New Yorkers are evacuating as Hurricane Irene bears in, packing winds of upto 160 km/hr.
WILMINGTON, North Carolina (Reuters) - The eastern United States ramped up its alert on Friday ahead of Hurricane Irene and New York City ordered evacuations of vulnerable residents as the broad, menacing storm closed in on the Atlantic coast.
As 55 million Americans on the eastern seaboard braced for the weekend onslaught from the nearly 600 mile (960 km)-wide hurricane, President Barack Obama said its impact could be "extremely dangerous and costly" for a nation that still remembers destructive Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
Hundreds of thousands of residents and vacationers were evacuating from Irene's path, starting in east North Carolina where the hurricane, now packing winds of 100 miles per hour (160 kph), is expected to make landfall on Saturday.
Tropical storm winds were already arriving along the coast of the Carolinas, the U.S. National Hurricane Centre said.
A quarter of a million New Yorkers were ordered to leave homes in low-lying areas as authorities prepared for dangerous storm surge and flooding on Sunday in the city and farther east on Long Island.
Some New York hospitals in flood-prone areas were already evacuating patients.
"We've never done a mandatory evacuation before and we wouldn't be doing it now if we didn't think this storm had the potential to be very serious," New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg told a news conference.
Those affected were ordered to evacuate by 5 p.m. (2100 GMT) on Saturday afternoon.
U.S. federal and state leaders, from Obama downward, urged the millions of Americans in the hurricane's path to prepare and to heed evacuation orders if they received them.
"All indications point to this being a historic hurricane," Obama said.
Coastal communities from the Carolinas to New England stocked up on food and water and tried to secure homes, vehicles and boats. States, cities, ports, hospitals, oil refineries and nuclear plants activated emergency plans.
"We've been through about four or five (hurricanes), but this looks like it'll be the worst," Henry Burke, a vacation homeowner in Atlantic Beach, North Carolina, told Reuters.
"If you are in the projected path of this hurricane, you have to take precautions now .... don't wait, don't delay," Obama said, speaking from the island of Martha's Vineyard off the Massachusetts coast where he is vacationing.
"We all hope for the best but we have to be prepared for the worst," added Obama, who will cut short his vacation by a day and head back to Washington Friday night.
As U.S. authorities ramped up preparations to cope with a potential major natural disaster on the densely populated East Coast, U.S. airlines cut at least 1,000 flights and were moving airplanes out of Irene's path.
Officials are taking every precaution with Irene because they remember all too well how Hurricane Katrina in 2005 swamped New Orleans, killing up to 1,800 people and causing $80 billion in damage.
WIND FIELD "HUGE"
Irene weakened early on Friday to a Category 2 hurricane from a 3 on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale, but it still was carrying winds of up to 100 miles per hour (155 kph).
It was expected to remain a hurricane as it sweeps up the mid-Atlantic coast from Saturday but the Miami-based hurricane Centre said it could dip below hurricane strength before reaching New England. But its impact would not vary much.
At 5 p.m. (2100 GMT), Irene's Centre was churning northward 265 miles (425 km) south-southwest of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina.
Irene, the first hurricane of the 2011 Atlantic season, had already caused as much as $1.1 billion in insured losses in the Caribbean this week, catastrophe modelling company AIR Worldwide said, with more losses expected to come.
New York City's mass transit system, which serves 8.5 million riders a weekday, will shut around noon on Saturday ahead of Irene's arrival, Governor Andrew Cuomo said in a statement.
The NHC said hurricane force winds extended outward up to 90 miles (150 km) from Irene's Centre, while tropical storm force winds extended out to 290 miles (465 km), giving the storm a vast wind field width of nearly 600 miles (960 km).
"The wind field is huge," U.S. National Hurricane Centre Director Bill Read told Reuters Insider.
In earlier comments, NHC chief Read said Irene, which will be the first significant hurricane to affect the populous U.S. Northeast in decades, would lash the eastern seaboard with tropical storm-force winds and a "huge swath of rain" from the Carolinas to New England.
He said North Carolina would start seeing tropical storm conditions on Friday afternoon. Cities like Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York could experience heavy rain and wind and power outages from the weekend.
"WATCHING THAT BIG WHITE SWIRL"
U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano urged East Coast residents not to delay precautions. "The window of preparation is quickly closing," Napolitano said.
"This is a big, bad storm," North Carolina Governor Bev Perdue told CNN.
Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley told the TV network: "Anyone who thinks this is just a normal hurricane and they can stick it out is being ... selfish and stupid."
Wall Street firms scrambled to raise cash into early next week in case Irene causes major disruption in trading. Bond trading volume dropped precipitously by noon on Friday.
Traders were "watching that big white swirl" on their television sets, said Guy LeBas, chief fixed income strategist at Janney Montgomery Scott in Philadelphia.
Northeast oil, natural gas and power facilities also made preparations.
Brent crude oil futures rose in choppy trade on Friday as Irene targeted the U.S. East Coast and traders weighed comments by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on the economy.
North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, New York and Connecticut have declared emergencies.
Irene will be the first hurricane to hit the U.S. mainland since Ike pounded Texas in 2008.
In Washington, Irene forced the postponement of Sunday's dedication ceremony for the new memorial honouring civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. Tens of thousands of people, including President Barack Obama, had been expected to attend.
Flooding from Irene killed at least one person in Puerto Rico and two in Dominican Republic. The storm knocked out power in the Bahamian capital, Nassau, and blocked roads with trees.
(Reporting by Jane Sutton, Tom Brown, Manuel Rueda in Miami, Daniel Trotta, Basil Katz, Richard Leong, Joan Gralla, Lynn Adler, Ben Berkowitz in New York; Jeremy Pelofsky and Vicki Allen in Washington, Laura MacInnis and Alister Bull on Martha's Vineyard; Writing by Pascal Fletcher; Editing by Philip Barbara)
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56 COMMENTS
19Thumbs UpThumbs Down11 d09:43am Saturday 27th August 2011 ESTReport Abuse
I bet Clinton is standing on a jetty off NYC with his pants around his ankles yelling' hey Irene, blow this!'.
25Thumbs UpThumbs Down39 ron10:03am Saturday 27th August 2011 ESTReport Abuse
Sinners can run and hide but they will never escape our Gods wrath. He hath unleashed His fury on the Devils followers. ONE NATION UNDER GOD.Comment hidden due to its low rating. Show
11 Replies
1Thumbs UpThumbs Down4 Joe10:07am Saturday 27th August 2011 ESTReport Abuse
just another nail in the coffin of planet earth
1 Reply
1Thumbs UpThumbs Down2 Joe10:09am Saturday 27th August 2011 ESTReport Abuse
listen for the trumpets
11Thumbs UpThumbs Down3 Ed J10:19am Saturday 27th August 2011 ESTReport Abuse
More 1 in 1000 year events that are now taking place every second week. After North America had one of the coldest winters on record. Without a barrow to push, lets agree these weather events are outside natural variation. The cause is not build up of CO2 but can be identified. It's human development over the centuries now hitting the tipping point of various systems and subsystems in our environment even our own human nature. Go and think about it.....
6Thumbs UpThumbs Down1 TxMike10:24am Saturday 27th August 2011 ESTReport Abuse
I see Australias brightest bloggers are out tonite.
1 Reply
17Thumbs UpThumbs Down1 solar00active10:26am Saturday 27th August 2011 ESTReport Abuse
Killing thousands of innocent people around the globe, implementing new world order, and most of the 1st world nationals have no feeling for those innocent lives; I am just wondering does God really exist.
7 Replies
7Thumbs UpThumbs Down3 solar00active10:27am Saturday 27th August 2011 ESTReport Abuse
Killing thousands of innocent people around the globe, implementing new world order, and most of the 1st world nationals have no feeling for those innocent lives; I am just wondering does God really exist.
23Thumbs UpThumbs Down3 Ali G10:38am Saturday 27th August 2011 ESTReport Abuse
This is an early warning from Almighty to get back on right track of humanity (to all of us) and not to snatch others' lives (everything). I hope we do a bit of justice!!
2 Replies
2Thumbs UpThumbs Down5 Daniel10:55am Saturday 27th August 2011 ESTReport Abuse
There is alot of information out there that people just do not want you to know including 7 news. I see that nobody reports about us approaching the Photon Belt, no one talks about Comet Elenin and no one of course wants to talk about what they are actually doing about it. Why??? Because the world knows that pendance is due for our misdeeds. Now if even anybody resight there history with the Mayans especially, that big changes are about to come and its the way the world has worked for the...
6 Replies
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What do you think ?
Các anh chị có ý kiến hay phê bình, chia sẻ gì qua bài viết "EAST U.S. BRACES FOR HURRICANE, NYC ORDERS EVACUATIONS" và 10 ý kiến, phê bình trong số "56 COMMENTS" của đọc giả ?
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Kính chúc Sức Khỏe Quý Anh Chị .
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