New York orders evacuations as hurricane nears
08/26/2011
New York on Friday ordered residents in low-lying areas to evacuate before the onslaught this weekend of massive Hurricane Irene, which churned northward along the East Coast
The United States' biggest city of more than eight million people took the unprecedented step as 55 million Americans on the eastern seaboard braced for the broad, menacing hurricane that President Barack Obama called "extremely dangerous".
Hundreds of thousands of residents and vacationers were already evacuating from Irene's path, starting in eastern North Carolina where Irene is expected to make landfall on Saturday, packing winds of 100 miles per hour (155 km/hour).
Irene's wide swirling bands are lashing the seaboard with winds and rain from the Carolinas to New England.
A quarter of a million New Yorkers may have to leave their vulnerable homes if, as predicted, Irene triggers dangerous storm surge and flooding in the city and farther east on Long Island.
"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," New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg told a news conference.
Those affected were ordered to evacuate by 5 p.m. on Saturday afternoon.
Federal and state leaders, from Obama downward, urged the millions of Americans in the hurricane's path to prepare and to heed evacuation orders if they received them.
"All indications point to this being a historic hurricane," Obama said. He added the storm, the first hurricane of the 2011 Atlantic season, could be "extremely dangerous and costly".
"If you are in the projected path of this hurricane, you have to take precautions now .... don't wait, don't delay," Obama said, speaking from the island of Martha's Vineyard off the Massachusetts coast where he is vacationing.
"We all hope for the best but we have to be prepared for the worst," added Obama, who will cut short his vacation by a day and head back to Washington Friday night.
As authorities ramped up preparations to cope with a potential major natural disaster on the densely populated East Coast, airlines cut at least 1,000 flights and were moving airplanes out of Irene's path.
The NHC said hurricane force winds extended outward up to 90 miles from Irene's center, while tropical storm force winds extended out to 290 miles, giving the storm a vast wind field width of nearly 600 miles.
"The wind field is huge," National Hurricane Center Director Bill Read told Reuters Insider.
Irene weakened early on Friday to a Category 2 hurricane from a 3 on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale, but it still was carrying winds of up to 100 miles per hour.
It was expected to remain a hurricane as it sweeps up the mid-Atlantic coast on Sunday.
At 2 p.m., its center was churning northwards 300 miles south-southwest of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina.
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