Hurricane Irene kills 18, impacts millions in US

ne Irene petered out leaving 18 dead across seven states and impacting millions with strong winds and drenching rains, authorities prepared to fight dangerous, damaging flood waters along the East Coast.

By 8 p.m., Tropical Storm Irene had maximum sustained winds of 50 mph and was nearing the US-Canadian border, according to the National Hurricane Centre.

The cost from wind damage alone is expected to top $1 billion, with downed power lines leaving more than four million people without electricity, according to US government estimates.

'I want people to understand that this is not over,' President Barack Obama said Sunday evening from Washington. 'The impacts of this storm will be felt for some time, and the recovery effort will last for weeks or longer.'

Flood warnings and watches were in effect Sunday night for much of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, eastern New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine.

Also hard-hit was New Jersey, where initial fears about coastal flooding -- which had prompted the evacuation of more than 1 million people from the shore -- had given way to fresh concerns about inland flooding.

In New York City, officials worked Sunday night to return the city to normal. Hours earlier, the Hudson River overflowed in lower Manhattan, receding only after massive amounts of water spilled over jogging paths and into at least one nearby apartment building.

Area's three major airports -- Newark Liberty in northern New Jersey and LaGuardia and John F. Kennedy in the New York City boroughs of Queens -- will reopen Monday, two days after they shut down.

New Jersey Transit rail service is suspended 'until further notice,' except for the Atlantic City rail line, but light rail and bus service will resume Monday.

Fear of Hurricane Irene in Hoboken

Mayor Dawn Zimmer yesterday again strongly urged city residents to leave town as soon as possible to avoid possible catastrophe if Hurricane Irene hits with its anticipated fury.
At a press conference at City Hall, Zimmer reiterated that the storm, set to wallop Hoboken and surrounding communities later today and into tomorrow, could flood the entire city.

Zimmer holds a press conference at City Hall yesterday to reiterate that Hurricane Irene could flood the entire city.

“I know it’s sunny out, which can be deceiving,” she said. “But this could be the most severe storm in the history of Hoboken. “I’m not going to hold a gun to anyone’s head to leave, but people should be prepared to be without electricity,” she added.
Police Chief Anthony Falco ordered all licensed alcohol establishments in the city to stop serving alcohol by 8 p.m. tonight. Driving of personal vehicles, including taxis, will also be prohibited after 8 p.m.

But given what New Jersey is still facing, that’s hardly a silver lining.

Irene is still expected to pound New Jersey as a Category 1 hurricane as it skirts the state’s coastline from Sunday morning through the afternoon, according to the National Hurricane Center.

"It’s the triple-header we’re facingBy unanimous vote, Hoboken’s City Council voted last night to add 10 miles of bike lanes to the city’s streets.

The ordinance amendment provides for on-street bike lanes on segments of Hudson Street, Garden Street, Park Avenue, Willow Avenue, Clinton Street, Adams Street, Jefferson Street, Monroe Street, Jackson Street, Harrison Street, Newark Street, 2nd Street and 11th Street. According to spokesman Juan Melli, separate from this ordinance, Hoboken will also paint an additional 9.7 miles of shared-road markings on narrower streets that cannot accommodate a striped bike lane. In addition, Hoboken intends to create a two-way protected 0.43-mile bike lane along Observer Highway as part of a complete street redesign scheduled for next year.

here," said David Robinson, the state climatologist at Rutgers University. "It’s the coastal impacts, it’s the flooding rains and it’s the potential wind damage that make this a real menace."

As of late Friday night, Irene was classified as a Category 2 storm, carrying winds that could reach as high as 110 miles per hour.

Hurricane effect the Nc's outer bank tourism as well battering the east

BUXTON, N.C. (AP) — Tens of thousands of tourists on North Carolina’s Outer Banks are being told to cut short vacations and flee the exposed strip of coastal villages and beaches as Hurricane Irene approaches.

An evacuation order for Dare County went into effect Thursday morning and officials estimated up to 150,000 tourists would be leaving. Authorities concerned about traffic closed schools in Dare and a neighboring county on what was to be the first day of the academic year.

Some visitors left Wednesday night to avoid traffic on the main road that cuts through many communities. As of early Thursday there was no crush of traffic, but many expected that could change.

Brandon Shirley, of Atlantic Beach, sits on his porch, Friday, August 26, 2011 as rain bands start to move through Atlantic Beach, North Carolina. Hurricane Irene is expected to make landfall on the North

WILMINGTON, N.C. - The first punch from Hurricane Irene landed here Friday, foreshadowing with brutal authority what is to come as this vast storm, its most forceful winds stretching outward for 90 miles, churned north toward New York City.

Mandatory evacuations were ordered all along the Eastern seaboard as far north as the New Jersey shore and parts of New York City. Roads and highways were filled with caravans of ousted vacationers and homeowners, many fleeing under sunlit skies in anticipation of torrential rains, dangerous tidal surges and the likelihood of days without power.With an estimated 55 million people in the path of a storm the size of California, the East Coast's major cities prepared for the worst. Hurricane watches were posted and states of emergency declared for North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York and New England.

Amtrak canceled train service for the weekend, and airlines began canceling flights, urging travelers to stay home. For the first time, New York City planned to shut down its entire mass transit and subway system - the world's largest - at noon today. New Jersey Transit was set to suspend service then, too.

Although it slowed a bit during the day - sustained winds were about 100 mph - the unusually wide, wet and slow-moving Category 2 hurricane began to clip this coastal town with tropical storm-force winds in the late afternoon.

By early today, Hurricane Irene's eye should be about 66 miles from Cape Fear, N.C. Winds along the North Carolina coast will most likely hit 98 mph, with gusts of as much as 132 mph by this morning, according to the National Weather Service.

Obama on Irene Invites Bush, Katrina Comparisons

All indications point to this being a historic hurricane,” President Obama said in remarks about Hurricane Irene on Friday morning from his Martha’s Vineyard vacation.

He emphasized that coordination with local agencies has already begun. “Although we can’t predict with perfect certainty the impact of Irene over the next few days,

the federal government has spent the better part of last week working closely with communities that could be affected by this storm to see to it that we are prepared.”

That’s what President Obama said publicly, and for a window into what the private briefings might look today and tomorrow, it’s worth looking back at video of

President George W. Bush’s briefing with FEMA and National Hurricane Center officials less than a day before Katrina hit the Gulf Coast in 2005. The Associated Press

obtained video of that briefing six months after Katrina.

It was a Sunday morning, and President Bush tapped in via video conference from his ranch in Crawford, Texas. Then-FEMA Director Michael Brown was there, as was

National Hurricane Center Director Max Mayfield.

"My gut was this was a bad one and a big one," Brown told the assembled group. "This is, to put it mildly, the big one I think."

Brown went on to express concerns about worst-case scenario plans to shelter residents at the SuperDome, questioning the soundness of its roof and noted the public

health challenges of assembling so many people there.

National Hurricane Center director Max Mayfield did his best to emphasize the massive scale of the potential devastation.

“I don’t think anyone can tell you with any confidence right now whether the levees will be topped or not, but that is obviously a very, very grave concern," Mayfield

warned the group, the latest in a string of warnings he issued as Katrina neared the coast. The night before this briefing with the president, Mayfield had called the

governors of Mississippi and Louisiana and the mayor of New Orleans to emphasize his serious concerns. "I just wanted to be able to go to sleep that night knowing that

I did all I could do," Mayfield later told the St. Petersburg Times.

The differences between Katrina and Irene are notable, of course. Katrina was a massive Category 5 hurricane, while Irene is currently a Category 2 and the National

Hurricane Center does not expect it to grow in strength before it reaches the North Carolina coast Friday night. At this point, however, the hurricane’s pathway is

predicted to follow along the entire northern east coast, with warnings stretching up the mid-Atlantic to New York City and Boston.

President Bush did not ask any questions during this Katrina briefing, but he told the group the federal government was "fully prepared."

"I want to assure the folks at the state level that we are fully prepared to not only help you during the storm, but we will move in whatever resources assets we have

at our disposal after the storm to help you deal with the loss of property, and we pray, for no loss of life of course.

What President Bush knew about Katrina’s potential impact, and when he knew it, later became a major political problem for President Bush.

“There is frustration,” President Bush told ABC News days later, when the full impact of Katrina’s devastation was becoming clear. “I don’t think anybody anticipated

the breach of the levees.”

The AP later reported that it wasn’t until the day that Katrina was hitting that then-FEMA director Brown said that Bush had asked about reports of breaches, but Bush

did not participate in that briefing.  

NECESSITY OF GENERATOR AT THE TIME OF HURRICANE IRENE

Yesterday was home supply day. Tomorrow will likely be grocery day.

As Hurricane Irene approaches Massachusetts — the storm is expected late Sunday — some residents of Central Massachusetts began preparing for the inevitable yesterday.

Jeff Hilditch, manager of Hannaford’s supermarket in Clinton, said while the store was busier than usual yesterday with customers picking up essentials such as milk, water, bread and batteries, he expects more shoppers tomorrow. “Saturday is expected to be the big day,” he said.

Peter W. Judge, a spokesman for the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency, said big box appliance stores such as The Home Depot and Lowe’s have been busy since Wednesday.

The Home Depot on Route 20 in Auburn was busier than usual, with generators (some costing $849 each) flying off shelves.

A fortunate Dan James of Brooklyn, Conn., squeezed the next-to-last one into the small trunk of his subcompact car.

“I don’t want to be without power for three or four days,” he said. “I want to have water. I want to be able to use my stove, flush the toilets, and power a light. At least I can stay in my house if I have a generator.”

With the pending Hurricane, multiple volunteer organizations are preparing for the storm in their own way. In order to assist elderly and other oxygen-reliant patient, Chaveirim and Bikur Cholim