Millions flee as Hurricane Irene lashes US east coast Skip to main content

Millions flee as Hurricane Irene lashes US east coast

Click to play
ABC reporter Steve Osunsami flew deep into the eye of Hurricane Irene
Hurricane Irene is pummelling the US east coast after making landfall in North Carolina, where it has caused flooding and damage.
The 500-mile wide storm, bringing winds of more than 85 mph (140km/h) is moving slowly northwards, with New York and other large cities in its path.
More than two million people have been ordered to leave their homes.
Irene remains a "large and dangerous" storm, US Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano warned on Saturday.
A first death caused by the storm has been reported in North Carolina.
Authorities said it blew a large tree branch onto a man near Raleigh, killing him.
In New York City, 300,000 people living in low-lying areas have been told to leave in an unprecedented mandatory evacuation.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Irene was a "life-threatening storm" for New Yorkers and that it was "foolish" and "dangerous" to ignore the order.
Click to play
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg: "You have to prepare for the worst case"
New York State is one of seven states from North Carolina to Connecticut to have declared emergencies.
President Barack Obama, who cut short his holiday to return to Washington, had a conference call about the hurricane with emergency officials on Saturday.
He earlier warned Irene could be "a historic hurricane" and that everyone should take the storm seriously.
The National Hurricane Center has downgraded Irene from a category two to a category one hurricane but says winds gusting up to 90mph extend outwards some 90 miles from the eye of the storm. Tropical-force winds extend as far as 290m.
The NHC expects Irene to weaken after hitting North Carolina, but it is forecast to remain a hurricane as it moves north along the Atlantic coast on Sunday.
'Dangerous surges' The eye of the storm crossed the North Carolina coast near Cape Lookout at about 0730 local (1130 GMT) on Saturday - at the start of what is predicted to be a 36-hour assault on the US east coast.
Power lines have been toppled and more than 400,000 people are without electricity in North Carolina and neighbouring Virginia.
"Extremely dangerous" storm surges have been forecast in parts of the state that could raise water levels by as much as 11ft (3.35m).

#Irene Twitter updates

More than 200,000 people had already evacuated coastal areas as high waves and strong winds began to lash islands just off the mainland. Residents hoping to ride out the storm have stocked up on food, water and fuel.
"There's nothing you can do now but wait. You can hear the wind and it's scary," one man who rode out the storm told the Associated Press.
"Things are banging against the house. I hope it doesn't get worse, but I know it will. I just hate hurricanes," said Leon Reasor in the Outer Banks town of Buxton.
Further north, large numbers of people are on the move in parts of Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey and New York City after mandatory evacuations were ordered for people living in low-lying areas.
In New York city, parts of Manhattan and into Staten Island are at particular risk, according to projections issued by city authorities.
From midday, the city's transport systems began to shut down. Airports are also closing.
Hospitals in affected areas have begun evacuating patients.
In Washington DC, Sunday's dedication of the new memorial for Martin Luther King Jr - which President Obama had been expected to attend - has been postponed until at least September. The power company serving the Washington area warned of "potential widespread power outages" at the weekend.
Photo: Hope LeVin, Turks and Caicos
The storm has already battered the Caribbean, including the Turks and Caicos Islands
Supermarkets along the east coast were reportedly running out of supplies as people stock up before the storm arrives.
"Earlier I was in the supermarket and it was absolute chaos - no shopping carts available, torch batteries sold out, everyone buying up bottled water and that kind of thing," Oliver Brew of Brooklyn in New York told the BBC.
The Pentagon has loaded 200 trucks with emergency supplies, and 100,000 National Guard troops are on standby.
The American Red Cross said it was preparing dozens of emergency shelters along the east coast.
The north-eastern seaboard is the most densely populated corridor in the US, with more than 65 million people living in major cities along the coast from Washington DC in the south to Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York and Boston further north.
States of emergency have been declared in North Carolina, Maryland, Virginia, Delaware, New Jersey, New York and Connecticut.
"We're going to have damages, we just don't know how bad," Craig Fugate, head of the US Federal Emergency Management Agency, told the Associated Press news agency.
"This is one of the largest populations that will be impacted by one storm at one time."
map
If Irene hits New York and New England at category two, it will be the region's strongest storm since Hurricane Bob glanced off Massachusetts in 1991, and Hurricane Gloria, which caused extensive damage to New York City in 1985

http://www.bbc.co.uk/burmese/news/2011/08/110826_libyabodies.shtml
Labels:

Comments

Unknown said…
Please help me by reading my appeal on my profile
August 27, 2011 at 12:45 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Chronology of the Press in Burma

1836 – 1846 * During this period the first English-language newspaper was launched under British-ruled Tenasserim, southern  Burma . The first ethnic Karen-language and Burmese-language newspapers also appear in this period.     March 3, 1836 —The first English-language newspaper,  The Maulmain Chronicle , appears in the city of Moulmein in British-ruled Tenasserim. The paper, first published by a British official named E.A. Blundell, continued up until the 1950s. September 1842 —Tavoy’s  Hsa-tu-gaw  (the  Morning Star ), a monthly publication in the Karen-language of  Sgaw ,  is established by the Baptist mission. It is the first ethnic language newspaper. Circulation reached about three hundred until its publication ceased in 1849. January 1843 —The Baptist mission publishes a monthly newspaper, the Christian  Dhamma  Thadinsa  (the  Religious Herald ), in Moulmein. Supposedly the first Burmese-language newspaper, it continued up until the first year of the second Angl
Post a Comment
Read more

ARSA claims ambush on Myanmar security forces

Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) on Sunday claimed responsibility for an ambush on Myanmar security forces that left several wounded in northern Rakhine state, the first attack in weeks in a region gutted by violence. Rakhine was plunged into turmoil last August, when a series of ARSA raids prompted a military backlash so brutal the UN says it likely amounts to ethnic cleansing of the Muslim Rohingya minority. The army campaign sent some 650,000 Rohingya fleeing for Bangladesh, where refugees have given harrowing accounts of rape, murder and arson at the hands of security forces and vigilantes. Myanmar's military, which tightly controls information about Rakhine, denies any abuses and insists the crackdown was a proportionate response to crush the "terrorist" threat. ARSA have launched few attacks in recent months.  But the army reported that "about ten" Rohingya terrorists ambushed a car with hand-made mines and gunfire on Friday morning
Post a Comment
Read more

Thai penis whitening trend raises eyebrows

Image copyright LELUXHOSPITAL Image caption Authorities warn the procedure could be quite painful A supposed trend of penis whitening has captivated Thailand in recent days and left it asking if the country's beauty industry is taking things too far. Skin whitening is nothing new in many Asian countries, where darker skin is often associated with outdoor labour, therefore, being poorer. But even so, when a clip of a clinic's latest intriguing procedure was posted online, it quickly went viral. Thailand's health ministry has since issued a warning over the procedure. The BBC Thai service spoke to one patient who had undergone the treatment, who told them: "I wanted to feel more confident in my swimming briefs". The 30-year-old said his first session of several was two months ago, and he had since seen a definite change in the shade. 'What for?' The original Facebook post from the clinic offering the treatment, which uses lasers to break do
1 comment
Read more