Hurricane Irene heads for New York – live updates

• Five people die as Hurricane Irene lashes US east coast • Two million homes without power as Irene tracks north • New York braced for storm-surge flooding and high winds • Irene downgraded to category one hurricane • Read the latest summary here •   Read our latest news story on Irene •  Follow me on Twitter @MatthewWells • Email me at matt.wells@guardian.co.uk 8.01pm ET: While I took a break from the liveblogging hotseat earlier, I went out for a walk around Tribeca, where I live, and down to the shore of the Hudson. Night has fallen now, and the rain is lashing down. But a few hours ago, you can see from this video – usually teeming with ferries and other craft – that the river was as calm as a millpond. 7.44pm ET: More on the growing concern over the New York mayor’s attitude to Rikers Island . At a press conference earlier, he breezily dismissed a reporter’s question about why the 17,000 prisoners on the island were not being evacuated, despite being in the evacuation zone. Tonight, City Hall has put out a more reasoned explanation of why the inmates on Rikers are staying put. “Rikers Island does not touch the Atlantic Ocean and, like Manhattan Island, Roosevelt Island and City Island, it does not need to be evacuated, according to a spokeman for the mayor’s office told the Wall Street Journal . 7.40pm ET: While we gear up for a big night in New York, Irene will pass by the US capital, Washington , first. The Weather Channel is forecasting hurricane-force winds heading for Washington and Baltimore now. Ewen Macaskill , our chief Washington correspondent, another Scot on the Guardian US team, has just been out for a walk around the streets. He reports: It is wet but no worse than typical day in Glasgow, it definitely does not feel anything like a hurricane. But it is supposed to get worse in the next hour or so. I called into my local, which had plenty of people in it, but it was just closing up: I suppose the staff want to go home early, given the forecast. Many people have opted to stay at home. Having said that, there are lots of cars on the road and many of people wandering about the city. 7.00pm ET: Good evening and welcome to our continuing coverage of hurricane Irene’s track up the Atlantic coast of the United States, with New York braced for a night of heavy winds and potentially damaging storm surges. This is Matt Wells live blogging from Lower Manhattan – right in the middle of the area where the storm surges are expected to hit. Fortunately, I’m nine floors up. You can catch up with our earlier coverage here. Here’s a summary of events so far. • At least five fatalities have now been attributed to the storm. Three of these deaths were caused, directly or indirectly, by trees felled by high winds. In Florida, a surfer was killed while attempting to take advantage of the hurricane-powered waves. • Approximately 1 million Americans – in North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware and DC – are without electricity. The mayor of Philadelphia in Pennsylvania has warned citizens that outages could last for days, even weeks. As Irene heads north, that number is likely to grow. • Hundreds of thousands of people have been ordered to evacuate coastal and low-lying areas along the eastern seaboard. As many as 1 million people have left the Jersey shore . In New York City, Mayor Michael Bloomberg has warned that “we are going to break down doors if we have to” to enforce the evacuation. • Transport has ground to a virtual halt on the east coast. Some 9,000 flights have been cancelled from affected airports. In New York, all public transport has closed down until Monday . • Despite Irene losing force, downgraded to category 1, storm surges and heavy rains are creating danger of widespread flooding. In northern New England, Vermont’s governor has declared a state of emergency, with flooding predicted in every river in the state. Hurricane Irene Natural disasters and extreme weather United States Matt Wells guardian.co.uk

Posted by on August 27, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.