(Newser) – Hours after Hurricane (or Tropical Storm, depending on your location) Irene hit New York, the worst appears to be over: NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg says the 370,000 residents he ordered to evacuate from their homes in low-lying parts of the city can now return. Some people had already begun making their way back early, and others never left to begin with, the AP notes. Though water submerged parts of a Manhattan promenade and a marina in front of the New York Mercantile Exchange, and some floodwater reached the streets of Manhattan and Queens, some cabbies continued offering taxi service and the city escaped the widespread damage it had feared. The evacuation orders for Atlantic City and other parts of the New Jersey shore, Delaware, and parts of Virginia and Maryland were also being lifted today.
The worst of the storm has passed in most areas, though transit and electricity are still affected in many areas, and Irene is expected to reach eastern Canada by tonight. In North Carolina, where it first made landfall yesterday, damage was also surprisingly light in many areas, though two piers were destroyed. In Virginia, a meteorologist says "it certainly could have turned out worse" for his area. In DC, the new MLK Memorial took on some water but was not damaged, and the Washington Monument suffered no additional damage. Economic damages are also less than expected: about $2 billion to $3 billion in insured damage and $7 billion in total losses, according to one estimate. But flooding is still a possibility due to runoff over the next few days, and at least 16 deaths have been reported; the AP has details on 15 of them as well as state-by-state details of damages.
(NEWSER) - Irene, Katia, and Lee all made not-so-nice headlines, and unfortunately there’s more where they came from: Tropical Storms Nate and Maria are currently taking shape in the Caribbean and Atlantic. Nate, formed in the southern Gulf of Mexico, is expected to drop anywhere from 2 to 8 inches of rain on parts of Mexico, and could start moving north by tomorrow—by which point it could also strengthen into a hurricane. More»
(NEWSER) - Adding insult to the East Coast's injury, there's a new hurricane in town: Tropical Storm Katia (ahem, another of those infamous K-hurricanes) has strengthened overnight into a Category 1 hurricane, reports the LA Times . “Additional strengthening is forecast during the next 48 hours and Katia could become a major hurricane by the weekend," says the National Hurricane Center. More»
(NEWSER) - Frightened North Carolinians fleeing Irene are jamming highways as the East Coast steels for what could be the biggest hurricane in decades. At least seven states have now declared a state of emergency, and hundreds of flights are being canceled. Gas stations are running out of fuel and ATMs have been emptied of cash as Americans hit the road for a bumper-to-bumper trip out of Irene's angry path. The Category 3 storm is expected to hit the Southeast sometime tomorrow, and hundreds of thousands of residents have been ordered out of their homes in three North Carolina counties. Norfolk, Va., is also ordering residents to evacuate , and Washington, DC, has been forced to postpone Sunday's planned MLK Memorial dedication . More»
(NEWSER) - Tourists started evacuating the North Carolina border island of Ocracoke today, as Hurricane Irene strengthened to a Category 3 storm and headed toward the East Coast. A local tells the AP evacuations are going smoothly so far. Year-round residents were ordered to begin evacuating tomorrow . Irene’s winds neared 120mph this afternoon, and the hurricane is expected to get stronger tomorrow, possibly reaching Category 4 with winds of 131mph or more. US cities as far north as Rhode Island and Massachusetts are preparing for the storm; officials have warned of possible flooding, power outages, and worse as far north as Maine. More»
(NEWSER) - North Carolina is bracing for what could be the strongest storm to hit the state since 1998's Hurricane Bonnie. Thousands of people have been ordered to leave the barrier island Ocracoke as Hurricane Irene, currently a Category 2 storm but expected to strengthen further, moves toward the coast, the AP reports. Tourists have been told to get off the island today; Ocracoke's 800 or so year-round residents have been told to leave tomorrow. Forecasters expect the storm to hit the Carolina coast on the weekend, possibly as a Category 4, and move up the coast to the Northeast. More»
