Hurricane Irene
There is a possible hurricane heading towards the Bahamas and Florida and should reach category 3 by Wednesday. We will use this Thread to keep track.
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'Nightmare' scenario: Hurricane menaces East Coast
For hundreds of miles, as many as 65 million people along the densely populated East Coast warily waited Friday for a dangerous hurricane that has the potential to inflict billions of dollars in damages anywhere within that urban sprawl that arcs from Washington and Baltimore through Philadelphia, New York, Boston and beyond. Ref. Source 2
Hurricane Irene continues its churn toward the U.S. East Coast, and all indications are this storm will be, as President Obama said, "historic." Here are some events that weather experts say could develop over the next 48 hours:
-- Irene is bringing gusty winds, heavy rain and dangerous surf to the South Carolina coast today.
-- North Carolina will be pounded by Irene's forces Friday night and Saturday.
-- Irene will head north Sunday, hitting a large swath from Virginia to Maine.
-- Major metro areas of Philadelphia, New York and Boston should brace for possible widespread damage, including major flooding, as Irene hits Sunday.
-- The strongest of Irene's power will be to the east of its center.
-- Widespread power outages are expected over a large section of the Northeast.
-- New York's metro transit system will be shut down at noon Saturday.
-- East Coast travel will be severely disrupted starting tonight. Hundreds of flights and Amtrak train lines have been canceled. Ref. CNN
Its a category 1 hurricane now and it made landfall near Cape Lookout, N.C. And there are like 2 million people trying to escape it.
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Hurricane Irene is battering eastern North Carolina, and tropical storm conditions are spreading northward along the Delmarva coast, the National Hurricane Center said in its latest advisory.
The Category 1 hurricane has sustained winds of 85 miles per hour and is moving northeast at 15 miles per hour, according to the 11 a.m. ET advisory. It is 50 miles west of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, and 120 miles south of Norfolk, Virginia.
The center of the storm will move across northeastern North Carolina during the afternoon. The hurricane is forecast to move over the Mid-Atlantic coast on Saturday night and over southern New England on Sunday. Ref. CNN
There will be no incoming or outgoing flights Sunday at the five New York-area airports operated by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, agency spokesman Steve Coleman said.
This means there are "thousands of flights canceled, with 150 to 200 people a flight," said Coleman, speculating that "probably tens of thousands of people" are affected.
North Carolina and Virginia have already been affected by Hurricane Irene, with nearly 1 million power customers without electricity, according to state and utility reports. Ref. CNN
Nearly 3 million people are without power because of Hurricane Irene. Utility companies warn more outages likely.
The Category 1 storm pummeled Ocean City, Maryland, early Sunday while enroute to New York City, threatening to flood parts of Manhattan and bring the bustling city to a virtual standstill. Ref. CNN