DisastersFloods, power outages in the wake of Hurricane Irene

A scene repeated all along the Eastern seaboard // Source: blackhatworld.com

Here is a quick summary of this weekend’s storm on the East Coast, based on reports in the New York Times, Fox New, and the BBC:

• Hurricane Irene weakened to a tropical storm as it moved from New York up to New England, but there are fears of severe flooding across much of the East Coast over the next few days.
• More than 4.5 million homes and businesses lost power, and the storm caused at least nineteen deaths
• Wide sections of Long Island, Westchester County, New Jersey, and Connecticut faced blackouts, in addition to blocked roadways and the prospect of further flooding, and scores of people were stranded in the Catskills after ferocious floods blocked access to several small mountain communities.
• Irene was still packing winds of 60 mph extending for more than 300 miles, but was expected to continue weakening as it was heading for eastern Canada Sunday night.
• New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg lifted evacuation orders affecting 370,000 people.
• Altogether, the New York City Fire Department has rescued 61 adults and three babies from 21 houses.
• New York authorities undertook the daunting task job of bringing the city to a halt Saturday when the subway system began shutting down at noon — the first time the system was closed because of a natural disaster. Metro North commuter rail reported massive flooding along three lines.
• The New York area’s major airports — LaGuardia, Kennedy, and Newark — were also shut down. Professional sports events were postponed and Broadway theaters were dark.
• Airlines canceled 9,000 flights, including 3,000 on Saturday. The number of passengers affected could be in the millions because so many flights make connections on the East Coast. Federal officials said Sunday that flights are resuming with minimal delays at Washington, D.C.-area airports, which took a glancing blow from the storm.
• More than one million homes and businesses lost power in Virginia alone, where three people were killed by falling trees, at least one tornado touched down, and about 100 roads were closed.
• A nuclear reactor at Maryland’s Calvert Cliffs went offline automatically when winds knocked off a large piece of aluminum siding late Saturday night. Constellation Energy Nuclear Group spokesman Mark Sullivan said the facility and all employees were safe.
• In New Jersey, the Oyster Creek nuclear plant, just a few miles from the coast, shut down as a precaution as Irene closed in.