标题: Irene strikes New England, NYC escapes brunt of storm [打印本页]
作者: davy10 时间: 2011-8-30 09:49 标题: Irene strikes New England, NYC escapes brunt of storm
本帖最后由 davy10 于 2011-8-30 09:51 编辑
Waves break along a pier that was damaged during Hurricane Irene, in Ocean City, Maryland, on Sunday. Reuters
NEW YORK - Irene raced across a shuttered New York City and charged into the northern New England region on Sunday as it weakened to a tropical storm. It left behind a stunned US East Coast - at least 21 people died, severe flooding was widespread and 4 million homes and businesses lost power.
As waves continued to pound the shores east and north of America's biggest city, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg lifted the evacuation order for 370,000 people in low-lying areas. Irene sent seawater surging into lower Manhattan's streets, but the city appeared to escape the worst fears of urban disaster - vast power outages, hurricane-shattered skyscraper windows and severe flooding.
There was no immediate indication when New York might start its subways again.
New England residents were feeling the brunt of the diminished but still-dangerous storm, which will cause flooding and winds that could topple many towering trees anchored in soil already saturated by earlier heavy rains. The storm was expected to move over eastern Canada.
In Massachusetts, the National Guard had to help people evacuate. The ski resort town of Wilmington, Vermont, was flooded, but nobody could get to it because both state roads leading to there were underwater.
"This is the worst I've ever seen in Vermont," said Mike O'Neil, the state emergency management director.
Chris Fogarty, director of the Canadian Hurricane Centre, said Irene was expected to push into the Maritime provinces and eastern Quebec and warned the storm will still have the potential to cause flooding and wind damage. He said the heaviest rainfall was expected in Quebec while high winds and pounding surf were more of a concern in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. As of Sunday afternoon, 180,000 customers in Quebec had already lost power.
Forecasters said Irene, while diminished in strength, was still massive and powerful, with powerful winds extending hundreds of kilometers from the center. Early damage estimates were in the billions of dollars.
Before Irene hit New York City, its winds weakened to 104 kph after its long journey up the East Coast, where it dropped 30 centimeters of rain on North Carolina and Virginia. The National Hurricane Center downgraded the storm after its winds fell below 119 kph, the threshold for a hurricane.
Obama said at a White House news conference that the public is still at risk of flooding and power outages and urged those in its path to be vigilant.
"This is not over," he said.
As the eye of the sprawling storm blew through America's largest city and Long Island to the east, it pushed an Atlantic storm surge toward New York. Briny water from New York Harbor submerged parts of a promenade at the base of the island of Manhattan. Thirty cm of water rushed over the wall of a marina in front of the New York Mercantile Exchange, where gold and oil are traded.
The huge storm had threatened 65 million people up and down the Atlantic coast, estimated as the largest number of Americans ever affected by a single storm.
Insured damage from Irene will range between $2 billion and $3 billion, and the total losses will likely be about $7 billion, according to preliminary estimates by Kinetic Analysis Corp, a consulting firm. Both figures are less than feared and will likely have little impact on the nation's $14 trillion economy.
Associated Press
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