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Politicians issued dramatic warnings but their fears were unfounded and some say they went too far Hurricane Irene dumped vast amounts of water on the eastern US at the weekend, cut electricity to millions of people and prompted warnings of extensive flash flooding further inland. But ultimately the storm failed to deliver the catastrophic blow politicians had feared when they ordered the evacuation of more than 2 million people, shut down public transport in New York and other cities, and put the military on alert. The category 1 winds – the lowest on the hurricane scale – may not have packed as much of a punch as other storms, but Irene’s vast size, more than 400 miles wide, and slow speed, made it particularly threatening. It took 12 hours or more to pass overhead, wreaking damage estimated in the hundreds of millions of dollars. The hurricane, downgraded to a tropical storm shortly before it reached New York as its winds fell to about 65mph, delivered up to eight inches of rain in places, leading to warnings of river floods over the coming days. It caused some flooding in coastal towns and in homes in parts of New York, with water up to people’s thighs, but fell far short of what had been predicted by some officials. Fifteen people were confirmed dead, including two children. The US homeland security chief, Janet Napolitano, attributed the lower than expected death toll to extensive warnings and mass evacuations. But as Irene proved to be less dramatic than had been predicted, some questioned whether the authorities had gone too far. The mayor of New York, Michael Bloomberg, defended the mass evacuation and the dramatic warnings. “We were unwilling to risk the life of a single New Yorker. The bottom line is that I would make the same decisions again, without hesitation. We can’t just, when a hurricane is coming, get out of the way and hope for the best,” he said. New York was expected to be back to business on Monday, with markets and offices open, but officials were warning that travel would be difficult. The preparations for Irene were made with half an eye on the damage wreaked on New Orleans six years ago, when Hurricane Katrina claimed nearly 2,000 lives, wrecking entire neighbourhoods and political careers. Caution was the watchword as people from the Carolinas to New York were ordered to leave their homes. Bloomberg ordered the mandatory evacuation of 300,000 people from low-lying areas of New York and threatened to have the police kick down the doors of people who refused to leave. “Time is running out,” he said hours before the storm arrived. “If you haven’t left you should leave now. Not later this evening, not this afternoon, immediately.” Chris Christie, the governor of neighbouring New Jersey, was even blunter: “Get the hell off the beach.” The warnings were repeated by politicians and television stations along the coast. Get out of your house, this is worse than you imagine, don’t expect us to come and rescue you if you don’t. The mood was not helped by last week’s unusual earthquake which rocked buildings along the east coast, from Virginia to New York. People pulled back from the North Carolina coast and the seaside resorts of Virginia Beach, Ocean City in Maryland and Atlantic City in New Jersey. Some defiantly painted “Come on, Irene” – a play on the Dexys Midnight Runners hit of the 1980s – on plywood hastily nailed over windows before getting out of town. New York shut down its subway system, a rare event. So did Boston. Airports closed and intercity trains stopped running. Grey warships sailed out of the military dock in Norfolk, Virginia, to ride out the storm at sea. Television reporters positioned themselves to appear live on camera clinging to poles as the storm lashed around them. Some did not bow to the pressure. About 600 elderly people living in high rise flats in Atlantic City refused to move. “I can’t make you … I’m not going to arrest you (but) let us walk you downstairs and put you on those buses,” Christie pleaded. Instead, residents of the 13-storey Best of Life Park held a “Goodnight Irene” party on Saturday as the storm moved in. In New York, ABC News estimated that more than 20% of people living in the mandatory evacuation zone had refused to move, despite police and city officials going door to door. Irene finally slammed into the North Carolina coast near Cape Lookout after daybreak on Saturday. Bit by bit it claimed lives. There may be undiscovered fatalities. The known 15 included a surfer caught in a rip current off the Virginia coast as he made the most of the huge waves. Two children died in the storm – an 11 year-old boy hit by a tree that fell on his house and a girl, 15, in a car crash. In New Jersey on Sunday a woman was found drowned in her car hours after she called the emergency services because she was trapped on a flooded road. A firefighter died trying to save another person. Others were lucky. Two men were rescued off Staten Island after they capsized while kayaking as the first tentacles of the storm began to lash the area. Bloomberg was angry, saying that rescue workers had risked their lives to save the men who were then given tickets. The waters washed through town after town. In Darby, Philadelphia, the waters rose so high that the mayor, Michael Nutter, said they were sending “couches, furniture, all kinds of stuff floating down the street”. The winds were strong enough to rip trees out of the ground and tear off branches, which in turn tore down power lines. More than 3 million people were left without electricity as the storm passed over, mostly in Virginia, New York and New Jersey. It is likely to take days to restore power. In Maryland, the hurricane forced an emergency shutdown of a nuclear reactor after it was hit by debris thrown around by the winds. The owners issued a statement saying there was no danger, but some people felt a flicker of doubt fuelled by the earthquake and tsunami disaster in Japan earlier this year. In a sign that the storm both proved not to be as fearsome as once threatened and that the evacuations had paid off, the cost of Irene was mostly being assessed in dollars not human lives. Christie said: “I’ve got to imagine that the damage estimates are going to be in the billions of dollars, if not in the tens of billions of dollars.” However, he added that there is likely to be more damage yet. Even as the storm moved on, the danger had not passed. The torrential rains come on top of a particularly wet summer. The additional water is expected to take a day or two to cause rivers to crest, creating a concern of flooding far inland from the coast. “Inland flooding of our rivers is at record levels,” said Christie. “It’s only going to get worse in the next few days. Do not leave your homes. Flooding is going to be the big problem. There’s saturated ground, swelled rivers.” Warnings of flash floods were issued as far north as Vermont on the Canadian border. Still, to the relief of politicians and every one else, Katrina it was not. Hurricane Irene Natural disasters and extreme weather New York United States Michael Bloomberg Chris McGreal guardian.co.uk