NASSAU – The northeast US seaboard, including Washington and financial centre New York, have rushed to prepare for a potential mauling from Hurricane Irene that will hit the coast this weekend.
Irene, a big category 3 hurricane now battering the low-lying Bahamas southeast of Florida, was expected to sweep up to land on Saturday on jutting eastern North Carolina, before raking up the remaining US Atlantic seaboard.
“The rest of the eastern seaboard is well within the path of this storm,” National Hurricane Center Director Bill Read said yesterday. “Being a large hurricane, tropical storm-force winds will extend far inland.”
After hitting the North Carolina coast as a major hurricane on the five-step Saffir Simpson intensity scale, Mr Read forecast Irene would continue as a less intense but still dangerous category 2 storm as it moved on Sunday into the Delaware, Maryland and Virginia coastal region and then on to New York on Monday.
“Any further deviation left could bring direct impacts as far inland as the Washington-Baltimore area,” Mr Read said.
“We could expect tropical force winds or worse in the DC area,” US Federal Emergency Management Agency administrator Craig Fugate said.
He said coastal evacuations were already under way in North Carolina and more were expected along the east coast as Irene approaches in the coming days.
At 4pm Irish time, Irene was packing winds of 185km/h (115mph) and was centred about 120km north-northeast of Nassau. The hurricane knocked out power in the Bahamas capital and felled trees, blocking roads. Earlier, local media reported homes washed away in low-lying Acklins Island in the Bahamas.
New York mayor Michael Bloomberg said the United States’ most populous city was bracing to experience at least tropical storm conditions and flooding starting on Sunday from Irene, which could hit Long Island.
Mr Bloomberg said some evacuations could be possible.
The city is positioning rescue boats and helicopters, working to minimise street flooding and gearing up to deal with casualties at hospitals.
“The city has already seen the power of Mother Nature once this week, and Mother Nature may not be done with us yet,” the New York mayor said, referring to Tuesdays earthquake.
If Irene makes a direct landfall in the continental United States, it will be the first hurricane to hit there since Ike pounded Texas in 2008. But forecasts showed it posed no threat to US oil and gas installations in the Gulf of Mexico.