Hurricane hits NY, 9 killed, 10,000 flights cancelled

World

Hurricane hits NY, 9 killed, 10,000 flights cancelled

Close

Hurricane Irene hit New York on Saturday, cancelling 10,000 flights.

28 August,2011 09:39 am

Before midnight, Irene, still a menacing 480-mile (780-km)-wide hurricane, was enveloping major population centers in the US northeast with drenching rain and driving winds, threatening dangerous floods and surging tides.The edge of the hurricane has finally got upon us, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg told the more than 8 million people who live in the United States most populous city that includes Wall Street, a major world financial center.From the Carolinas to Maine, tens of millions of people were in the path of Irene which howled ashore in North Carolina at daybreak, dumping torrential rain, felling trees and knocking out power.After moving across North Carolina with less punch than expected but still threatening, the hurricane re-emerged over inshore waters on its route northward, hugging the coast.At least nine deaths have been reported in North Carolina, Virginia and Florida. Several million people were under evacuation orders on the US East Coast.Hurricane warnings extended north to Nantucket, Massachusetts. A tropical storm warning extended all the way to the south coast of Nova Scotia, Canada.The Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, which connects Virginias Eastern Shore with the mainland and is regarded as a modern engineering wonder, was closed because of the winds and rain.This year has been one of the most extreme for weather in US history, with $35 billion in losses so far from floods, tornadoes and heat waves. New York Citys normally bustling streets were eerily quiet after authorities ordered unprecedented major evacuations and shut down its airports and subways.Commuters were left to flag down yellow taxis and livery cabs that patrolled largely deserted streets.Irene caused transport chaos as airline, rail and transit systems in New York and other eastern cities started sweeping weekend shutdowns.The Coast Guard closed the port of Philadelphia, while New York Harbor remained open with some restrictions.Irene left several million people without power in North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland and Delaware and New York prepared for possible widespread blackouts.With winds of 85 miles per hour, Irene was a Category 1 hurricane on the five-step Saffir-Simpson intensity scale.As it moved into New York, the US National Hurricane Center said it was expected to remain a hurricane and weaken only after making its second landfall in New England.Bloomberg repeatedly told New Yorkers Irene was a life-threatening storm and urged them to stay indoors to avoid flying debris, flooding or the risk of being electrocuted by downed power lines.It is dangerous out there, he said, but added later: New York is the greatest city in the world and we will weather this storm.Some 370,000 city residents were ordered to leave their homes in low-lying areas, many of them in parts of the boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens and in downtown Manhattan.But many were unwilling to evacuate. Nicholas Vigliotti, 24, an auditor who lives in a high-rise building along the Brooklyn waterfront, said he saw no point. Even if there was a flood, I live on the fifth floor, he said.The hurricane center said that Irenes winds could impact more strongly on the higher floors of skyscrapers.US airlines canceled more than 10,000 flights due to Hurricane Irene, while New York and other eastern cities initiated sweeping storm-related shutdowns of rail and mass transit systems.Tens of millions of air travelers, train passengers and subway and bus riders scrambled to adjust their routines, work commutes and vacations as transportation networks gradually scaled back operations.New Yorks subway system, which carries 7 million riders daily and operates the largest fleet in the world, had never closed due to weather.There is no mass transit available, said New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, advising New Yorkers in evacuation zones who had not yet left where they could board special buses headed for safer locations. The airports are basically all closed.Airlines canceled more than 10,000 flights from Friday through Monday, according to the online flight tracking service Flightaware.com.The Northeast is the most congested area of US air space and the three New York-area airports -- John F. Kennedy and LaGuardia airports in New York and Newark airport in New Jersey -- bore the brunt of East Coast cancellations.The three facilities handle about 6,000 flights on an average weekend day, and nearly 100 million domestic and international passengers annually. Disruptions in the region were felt across the country and overseas, particularly in Canada.