Irene Churns Up Coast, Weaker But Still Ferocious

Irene Churns Up Coast…

Hurricane Irene

Photos: Hurricane Irene
Interactive: Storm tracker
IreneWatchers on Twitter
Video: Weather Channel……Irene churns up coast, weaker but still ferocious
By MITCH WEISS – Associated Press,SAMANTHA GROSS – Associated Press | AP – 12 mins ago……REUTERS – A truck drives through flooded road as Hurricane Irene hits Cape Hatteras National Seashore in Salvo, North Carolina August 27, 2011. Hurricane Irene howled ashore in North Carolina with heavy winds, …more rain and surf on Saturday on a path threatening the densely populated U.S. East Coast with flooding and power outages. REUTERS/Jose Luis Magana

Momma’s Source: yahoonews

Share This

Editors Note

 

When it rains it pours. No pun intended. The east coast is recovering from the 5.9 Richter earthquakes and being bombarded by Hurricane Irene at the same time. Having grown up in this area where flood insurance is mandatory, I am fully aware of the preparation and anticipation of a major hurricane. I lived throgh several major hurricanes in childhood, and I have memories of watching a lighbulb swing back and forth across the ceiling. to explain this–we had lights that hung from a thick cord about a foot long. I doubt that these exist today. I can also remember playing as a child in the flood waters that came up to our porch.

Hurricanes are very dangerous, and I can relate to the above picture because I watched my Dad board up many a window as the storm approached. This hurricane is also significant because my mother’s name was Irene. Please, let us continue to pray not just for our countrymen and families but for also for those in other countries who have lost loved ones and seen devastation in their everyday lives. God Bless You.  Momma Cha

Hurricane Irene Rages Up U.S. East Coast

Hurricane Irene rages up U.S. east coast

By Joe Rauch | Reuters – 1 hr 41 mins ago

  • Pedestrians walk past sandbags used to control possible floods at downtown Manhattan in New York August 26, 2011. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz

WILMINGTON, N.C. (Reuters) – Hurricane Irene lashed North Carolina with heavy winds, rain and surf Saturday as it neared land on a path threatening the densely populated U.S. east coast with flooding and power outages.

New York City ordered unprecedented evacuations and transit shutdowns as states from the Carolinas to Maine declared emergencies due to Irene, whose nearly 600 mile width guaranteed a stormy weekend for tens of millions of people.

With winds of 90 miles per hour, Irene weakened slightly to a Category 1 hurricane on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale by early Saturday but forecasters warned that it remained a large and dangerous storm.

In the port and holiday city of Wilmington, North Carolina, thousands of people were without electricity as Irene’s winds intensified. The streets were empty before dawn and the air was filled with the smell and sound of pine trees cracking under the advancing storm.

At 5 a.m. EDT (0900 GMT), the center of Irene was about 35 miles south of Cape Lookout, North Carolina, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.

“Some weakening is expected after Irene reaches the coast of North Carolina but Irene is forecast to remain a hurricane as it moves near or over the mid-Atlantic states and New England,” it said.

In summer weather, hundreds of thousands of residents and vacationers had evacuated from Irene’s path. Supermarkets and hardware stores were inundated with people stocking up on food, water, flashlights, batteries, generators and other supplies.

“Our number of customers has tripled in the last day or two as people actually said ‘Wow, this thing is going to happen’,” said Jack Gurnon, owner of a hardware store in Boston.

Airlines canceled nearly 7,000 flights over the weekend and all three New York area airports were due to close to incoming flights at noon Saturday.

President Barack Obama said the storm could be “extremely dangerous and costly” for a nation that recalls the destruction in 2005 from Hurricane Katrina, which swamped New Orleans, killed up to 1,800 people and caused $80 billion in damage.

SOLDIERS AT THE READY

Irene, the first hurricane of the 2011 Atlantic season, caused as much as $1.1 billion in insured losses in the Caribbean, catastrophe modeling company AIR Worldwide said.

Losses are expected along the U.S. east coast from high winds, heavy seas, flooding and fallen trees. Irene is the first hurricane to hit the U.S. mainland since Ike pounded Texas in 2008.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said the military stood ready to help, with more than 100,000 National Guard forces available if needed in eastern states.

A quarter of a million New Yorkers were ordered to leave homes in low-lying areas, including the financial district surrounding Wall Street in Manhattan, as authorities prepared for flooding Sunday.

A mandatory evacuation was ordered for residents in large areas of nearby Long Island, which juts into the Atlantic.

New York’s mass transit system, which carries 8.5 million people on weekdays, was due to start shutting down around midday Saturday.

“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,” Mayor Michael Bloomberg said.

In Washington, Irene forced the postponement of a ceremony Sunday to dedicate the new memorial to civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. Tens of thousands of people, including 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 Tom Brown in Miami, Daniel Trotta, Basil Katz, Richard Leong, Joan Gralla, Lynn Adler and Ben Berkowitz in New York, Jeremy Pelofsky and Vicki Allen in Washington, Laura MacInnis and Alister Bull on Martha’s Vineyard, Ed Barnett in Morehead City, North Carolina; Writing by John O’Callaghan; Editing by Tim Pearce)

Momma’s Source: yahoonews

Share This

Hurricane Irene Strengthens On Path To U.S. Coast

NASA handout image taken by the GOES-13 satellite shows Hurricane Irene approaching the Bahamas on August 23, 2011 at 1932 UTC (3:32 p.m. EDT). No eye was visible in this image, but the extent of Irene's large cloud cover is seen from eastern Cuba over Hispaniola. The United States put its eastern seaboard on alert for Hurricane Irene on Tuesday as the powerful storm barreled up from the Caribbean on a path that could hit the U.S. coast on the weekend. REUTERS/NASA/NOAA GOES Project/Handout

  • NASA handout image taken by the GOES-13 satellite shows Hurricane Irene approaching …
  • A boy walks in a flooded road after Hurricane Irene hit the municipality of Loiza, Puerto Rico, August 22, 2011. REUTERS/Ana MartinezA boy walks in a flooded road after Hurricane Irene hit the municipality of Loiza, …

 

NASSAU (Reuters) – Hurricane Irene looked set to become a major storm on Wednesday as it roared up from the Caribbean on a path that prompted residents along the U.S. east coast to prepare for a possible hit over the weekend.

Irene is a Category 2 storm on the five-step Saffir Simpson scale, with top winds of 110 miles per hour (175 km per hour), the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.

“Strengthening is forecast and Irene will likely become a major hurricane later today,” the center said.

It will become a Category 3 storm when winds rise above 111 mph.

Even as the first hurricane of the 2011 Atlantic season pounded the Turks and Caicos Islands and the southeast Bahamas with winds, rain and high tides, people in the Carolinas on the southeastern U.S. coast were getting ready for its approach.

At 5 a.m. EDT, Irene was about 370 miles southeast of Nassau and about 955 miles south of Cape Hatteras in North Carolina.

Irene, the ninth named storm of the June-through-November season, looks set to be the first hurricane to hit the United States since Ike pounded the Texas coast in 2008. But forecasts showed it posing no threat to U.S. oil and gas installations in the Gulf of Mexico.

The hurricane center warned of “an extremely dangerous storm surge” that will raise water levels by as much as 11 feet above normal tides in the central and northwestern Bahamas and by as much as 8 feet in the southeastern Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos.

The storm is forecast to approach the coast of the Carolinas on Saturday morning. After that, the saturated New England region could be at risk from torrential rains, high winds and flooding from Irene, Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Craig Fugate said on Tuesday.

Major eastern cities like Washington and New York could feel some impact, the forecasts showed.

In North Carolina, Governor Bev Perdue urged residents to ensure they had three days worth of food, water and supplies.

Voluntary evacuations were to begin on Wednesday for parts of North Carolina’s Outer Banks, a stretch of barrier islands and beaches that are popular summer holiday spots.

Irene drenched the northeastern Caribbean islands earlier in the week. The first death from the storm was reported on Tuesday in Puerto Rico, where a woman was swept away.

Heavy rains continued to pelt the U.S. Caribbean territory, causing flooding and mudslides. Nearly 300,000 residents were without electricity and 58,000 were without water. (Additional reporting by Jane Sutton and Tom Brown in Miami, Harriet McLeod in Charleston, S.C., Edwin Barnett in Raleigh, N.C., Barbara Liston in Orlando; Writing by Pascal Fletcher and John O’Callaghan; Editing by Miral Fahmy)

 
 
Momma’s Source: @yahoonews