New York braces for hurricane

COMING STORM. A woman covers her head during an afternoon shower on Thursday in New York City as the Eastern Seaboard prepares for Hurricane “Irene.” AFP

HATTERAS, North Carolina—Millions of people on the US East Coast prepared on Friday for the arrival of Hurricane “Irene,” a massive storm authorities fear will cause widespread flooding and power outages across the populous region.

Officials from North Carolina to New York declared states of emergency and tens of thousands of people were ordered to higher ground as Irene, a Category 2 hurricane on the five-level Saffir-Simpson scale, raced toward the US mainland.

The northeastern United States rarely gets hit by a hurricane: Gloria in 1985 was the last major hurricane to hit the New York area.

President Barack Obama declared an emergency in North Carolina and federal authorities said they had stored meals and bottled water for people in shelters. The governors of North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, New York and Connecticut also declared emergencies.

The US military said up to 98,000 National Guard soldiers were available if needed. Separately, ships with the Navy’s Second Fleet sailed out of its home port at Hampton Roads, Virginia, to ride out the storm at a safe distance.

Direct hit on NY

Irene is forecast to make landfall on Saturday at North Carolina and score a direct hit on New York City on Sunday with winds of up to 153 kph.

Irene earlier tore through the Bahamas, a small country of 29 islands and hundreds of cays southeast of Florida, destroying homes and uprooting trees. While there are no known casualties, local officials warned that assessments from the outlying regions were still coming in.

Earlier, the storm killed people in the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico.

US state and federal authorities have been busy warning the 65 million people living in the path of the storm that they should expect heavy rain, flooding and possible power outages.

“There’s hardly any excuse for people not to know that there’s a hurricane out there,” said Craig Fugate, head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, on Thursday.

“People need to understand that their time will be running out to be prepared and be ready,” he told reporters on a conference call.

“I filled my tank up with gas in case I need to leave in a hurry or something, and get a lot of food supplies, taking everything out of my yard … anything that can fly into a window,” said Patricia Stapleton of Newport, North Carolina.

175-kph winds

At 0900 GMT on Friday, the center of Irene was located off the Atlantic coast of Florida about 675 km southwest of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, the Miami-based National Hurricane Center reported.

Irene had weakened slightly, with winds of 175 kph, though forecasters expected it would regain strength over the next 24 hours. The storm was moving towards the north at 22 kph.

Irene will be accompanied by an “extremely dangerous” storm surge that could raise water levels by as much as 3.4 meters, the NHC said. In New York, officials fear this will cause widespread flooding, including damage to the subway system.

Authorities in North Carolina’s coastal Dare County—where up to 180,000 people are believed to be present—warned that emergency personnel would not be able to reach anyone who ignored the mandatory evacuation by Friday morning.

“If you choose to stay, we can’t issue a criminal citation, but you are leaving yourself wide open to extreme conditions,” county official Kelly Davis said.

King memorial

The hurricane delayed the long-awaited dedication of a memorial on Washington’s National Mall to civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr., which was set to open on Sunday on the 48th anniversary of his “I Have a Dream” speech.

The nine-meter tall granite likeness of King, designed by Chinese artist Lei Yixin, will now be formally dedicated in September or October.

In New York, Mayor Michael Bloomberg urged residents of vulnerable areas to move to safety on Friday because the mass transit system, the nation’s biggest with 8 million passengers a day, may have to shut if flooding or high winds endanger its buses, subways and commuter trains.

Many New Yorkers do not have cars, so mass transit could be vital in evacuations.

“If you have a car and live in a low-lying area, park it on a hill,” Bloomberg told a press conference. “Move stuff upstairs.”

Hospital evacuations

Bloomberg also authorized the evacuation of hospitals and other vulnerable institutions in the most low-lying areas of New York City, while neighboring New Jersey ordered 750,000 people out of the remote Cape May area.

Irene earlier smashed through the Caribbean and then on Wednesday hit the Bahamas, where homes were destroyed, roads were flooded and power was cut off.

Haiti, while not directly under Irene’s eye, suffered from heavy rains dumped by the hurricane. Civil defense authorities said two people died when they were swept away by raging waters in a ravine.

Another 1,000 people were displaced by flooding caused by Irene, officials said, leading to fears of a new outbreak of cholera. The water-borne disease killed some 5,000 people in Haiti in the wake of last year’s major earthquake.

The Dominican Republic reported two deaths including that of an 18-year-old pregnant woman washed away in a river.

One person was killed in Puerto Rico, where the storm became a hurricane on Monday. Puerto Rican authorities estimated damage at more than $500 million.  With Reuters