Hurricane Irene: America’s east coast hunkers down

North Carolina expected to bear brunt of Irene, which is heading towards wide swathe of eastern seaboard Officials are considering whether to evacuate low-lying areas of Manhattan after hurricane Irene barrelled out of the Bahamas towards a wide swath of the eastern US. Irene, which achieved gusts of up to 128mph over Cat Island on Thursday, is forecast to maintain or even increase its intensity as it progresses. The slow-moving but powerful storm could hit North Carolina’s Outer Banks on Saturday morning with winds of around 115mph. It is predicted to travel up the east coast, spewing rain over parts of Virginia and Washington DC, New Jersey and New York City before reaching Maine on Monday afternoon. North Carolina is expected to bear the brunt of Irene, and most of the coast was on hurricane watch with the National Hurricane Centre warning to expect dangerous storm surges where the storm makes landfall. But a much greater swath of the eastern US, from the Carolinas up to Maine, could also feel Irene’s effects, federal officials warned. “North Carolina looks like the greatest threat right now,” Craig Fugate, the director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema), told reporters. “But the rest of the eastern seaboard is well within the path of the storm. It is going to bring in all of the north-east corridor for heavy rains, high winds and potential flooding.” Residents were warned to expect power outages from fallen trees as well as flooding. “You can expect at a minimum 5 to 10 inches of rain, and with hurricane force winds inland you are going to get a lot of treefall and a lot of flooding,” Bill Read, the director of the National Hurricane Centre, said in a conference call with reporters. As of Thursday, Irene was the strongest storm to threaten the Atlantic coast since 2005. It is also cutting a course that could take it much farther inland than any other storm since 1985. Even if it decreases in intensity, Fugate warns Irene could still cause significant disruption and damage to property. “You don’t really need hurricane force winds. Even winds blowing 40mph, or 50 and 60mph if they are blowing for hours can cause trees to come down and widespread power outages,” he said. As the storm travels north, federal officials from North Carolina to Maine began warning residents in low-lying and coastal areas to prepare to evacuate. New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg told a news conference that officials would make a decision on Friday on whether to evacuate low-lying areas in downtown Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island, and offer people places in storm shelters. “The timing is a bit up in the air, as it is with all these things. Sometime on Friday, late in the day. How many depends on how severe we think the storm is going to be,” Bloomberg said. He advised residents to begin packing small bags with food and water, medicines, important documents and other essentials in case they are ordered to evacuate. Hospitals began running checks on emergency generators, medicines and other supplies. City police mobilised 50 small boats to use in the event of floods. Hurricane Irene has already caused considerable damage in the southern Bahamas as it made its way to the US. Officials reported that at least 40 homes were badly damaged on the island of Mayaguana. Natural disasters and extreme weather United States North Carolina Suzanne Goldenberg guardian.co.uk

Posted by on August 25, 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.