Weakened Irene hits land
A weakened but still dangerous Hurricane Irene slammed into the New Jersey shore with 75mph winds today after dumping a foot of rain on North Carolina and Virginia, killing eight people and knocking out power to at least two million homes.
Irene had an enormous wingspan – 500 miles wide – and threatened 65 million people on the US East Coast, estimated as the largest number of Americans ever affected by a single storm.
New York turned eerily quiet as the city hunkered down, crippled after the entire transit system was shut down because of weather for the first time in history. All the city’s airports were closed, with over 9,000 flights cancelled. Broadway shows, baseball games and other events were all cancelled or postponed.
“The time for evacuation is over. Everyone should now go inside and stay inside,” New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg warned.
Forecasters said there was a chance a storm surge on the fringes of Lower Manhattan could send sea water streaming into the maze of underground vaults that hold the city’s cables and pipes, knocking out power to thousands and crippling the nation’s financial capital.
Officials feared water lapping at Wall Street, Ground Zero and the luxury high-rise apartments of Battery Park City.
Hours before the storm’s centre reached New York, a 58mph wind gust hit John F. Kennedy International Airport and a storm surge of more than 3.5ft struck New York Harbor.
The National Hurricane Centre said Irene was 100 miles south-southwest of New York City, moving north-northeast at 18 mph.
New York has seen only a few hurricanes in the past 200 years. The Northeast is much more used to snowstorms.
Irene caused flooding from North Carolina to Delaware, both from the 7ft waves it pushed into the coast and from heavy rain.
More than one million homes and businesses lost power in Virginia alone, where three people were killed by falling trees, at least one tornado touched down and about 100 roads were closed. Eastern North Carolina got up to 14 inches of rain, according to the National Weather Service. Virginia’s Hampton Roads area was drenched with up to 16 inches in some places.
North Carolina Governor Beverly Perdue said Irene inflicted significant coastal damage.
A nuclear reactor at Maryland’s Calvert Cliffs went offline automatically when winds knocked off a large piece of aluminium siding.
In Philadelphia, Mayor Michael Nutter declared a state of emergency, the first for the city since 1986. “We are trying to save lives and don’t have time for silliness,” he said.
The storm hit Washington just days after an earthquake damaged some of the capital’s most famous structures, including the Washington Monument.
In New Jersey, the Oyster Creek nuclear plant, just a few miles from the coast, shut down as a precaution as Irene closed in. And Boston’s transit authority said all bus, subway and commuter rail service were suspended.
The deaths blamed on Irene included two children. Four other people were killed by falling trees – two in separate Virginia incidents, one in North Carolina and one in Maryland. A surfer and another beachgoer in Florida were killed in heavy waves.
