MOREHEAD CITY, N.C., (Reuters) – Hurricane Irene charged up the U.S. East Coast today towards New York, shutting down the city, and millions of Americans sought shelter from a huge storm that halted transport and caused massive power blackouts.
“The storm is coming,” 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, one of the world’s major financial centers.
From the Carolinas to Maine, tens of millions of people were in the path of the giant 580-mile (930-km)-wide storm that howled ashore in eastern North Carolina at daybreak on Saturday, dumping torrential rain, felling trees and knocking out power.
At least six deaths were reported in North Carolina, Virginia and Florida. Several million people were under evacuation orders on the U.S. East Coast.
New York City ordered unprecedented evacuations and shut down its airports and subways, part of a huge public transit system that moves 8.5 million people a day on weekdays. Commuters were left to flag down yellow taxis and livery cabs that were patrolling largely deserted streets.
Irene caused transport chaos in the eastern United States, as airline, rail and transit systems in New York and other cities started sweeping weekend shutdowns.
The Coast Guard closed the port of Philadelphia.
“We are trying to get to Boston and that is not going to happen. We’re just stuck here,” Rachel Karten said from the near-empty Port Authority Bus Terminal in New York. “We didn’t think they would shut down everything.”
Irene left nearly 1 million people without power in North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland and Delaware on Saturday and energy firms prepared for wider disruptions.
With winds of 8O miles per hour (130 km per hour), Irene had weakened to a Category 1 hurricane on the five-step Saffir-Simpson intensity scale.
But it was expected to approach New York Saturday night at or near hurricane strength, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.
Irene came ashore near North Carolina’s Cape Lookout around 7:30 a.m. EDT (1130 GMT), and then chugged up the coast on a north-northeast track. By 5 p.m. (2100 GMT), the center was 50 miles (80 km) south southeast of Norfolk, Virginia, and 340 miles (545 km) south southwest of New York City.
Irene could slacken to a tropical storm by the time it hits New England today, but the U.S. National Hurricane Center said that would make little difference in the impact from its damaging winds, flooding rains and dangerous storm surge.
“I would advise people not to focus that much on Category 1, 2 or 3 … if you’re in a hurricane, it’s a big deal,” U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano told a conference call. “This remains a large and dangerous storm,” she said.
“DANGEROUS OUT THERE”
Bloomberg told New Yorkers Irene was a life-threatening hurricane and urged them to heed evacuation orders.
“This is a storm which if you’re in the wrong place at the wrong time, could be fatal … It is dangerous out there,” the mayor said in one of several public appeals. He urged New Yorkers to stay indoors to avoid flying debris, flooding or the risk of being electrocuted by downed power lines.
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.
