Hurricane Irene

Tens of thousands of Americans are fleeing low-lying areas as the "historic" Hurricane Irene bears down on the United States' east coast.

New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg earlier ordered an unprecedented evacuation of around 250,000 people from the city's low-lying areas, while tens of thousands are fleeing homes and vacation spots along the east coast.
The Category Two hurricane is packing winds of more than 160 kilometres an hour and is expected to make landfall at South Carolina on Saturday (US time) before making its way up the eastern seaboard towards Washington, New York, and Boston.
The densely populated corridor, home to more than 65 million people, is under the threat of flooding, storm surges, power outages and destruction that experts said could cost up to $US12 billion.
The storm has forced US president Barack Obama to return early from his summer holiday. He told tens of millions of Americans living along the hurricane's projected path that "all indications point to this being a historic hurricane".
"If you are in the projected path of this hurricane you have to take precautions now," he said.
New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg ordered the city's first-ever mass evacuations from low-lying areas of the city, calling it a "matter of life or death".
Major links into New York will be cut if winds exceed 60 miles per hour, as predicted, and authorities called up 900 National Guard troops and 2,500 power workers to prepare for emergency repair work - the largest-ever deployment.

We have never done a mandatory evacuation before, and we wouldn't be doing this now if we didn't think the storm had the potential to be very serious.

Michael Bloomberg

"We have never done a mandatory evacuation before, and we wouldn't be doing this now if we didn't think the storm had the potential to be very serious," Mr Bloomberg said.
Neighbouring New Jersey on Thursday ordered 750,000 people out of the Cape May area.
Early Saturday, Hurricane Irene was around 225 kilometres south of Cape Lookout, North Carolina, where rain and tropical storm-force winds were already pummelling the coast, the Miami-based National Hurricane Centre said.
It said Irene had weakened slightly and would lose strength once it hit land on Saturday, but would remain a hurricane as it passed over or near the mid-Atlantic on Saturday night before churning north towards Canada.
Irene's approach has stirred painful memories of Hurricane Katrina, which smashed into the Gulf Coast in 2005, stranding thousands of people in New Orleans and overwhelming poorly-prepared local and federal authorities.
The popular North Carolina beach resort of Kill Devil Hills was a ghost town Friday, as forecasters predicted up to 38 centimetres of rain in some places and the first power outages were reported.
"We haven't seen a hurricane threat like this in quite a few decades," said Chris Vaccaro, a spokesman from the National Weather Service.
"This is going to be a very long weekend for the residents of the Mid-Atlantic and the north-east."
Irene will be accompanied by an "extremely dangerous" storm surge that could raise water levels by as much as 3.4 meters, the NHC said.

Video: US braces for Hurricane Irene (ABC News)

New Yorkers 'oblivious'

But despite the warnings, many New Yorkers appear "oblivious" to the impending storm according to an ABC broadcaster in New York.
Journalist Scott Spark says that although some New Yorkers are acutely aware of how devastating the hurricane could be, others are simply unfazed.
"One thing that I've really sort of gathered is that people in New York feel indestructible. Despite everything that has happened to them, there is a certain sense of indestructibility," he said.
"And so you have some people that are quite acutely aware of the threat of the cyclone ... but to be honest with all the projections it won't be like a hurricane by the time it gets here.
"Today was a picture perfect summer day in New York - there was not a cloud in the sky - so to be told that tomorrow night the conditions will be similar to a hurricane, it's kind of unbelievable."
Spark says many New Yorkers feel the emergency measures being taken by New York mayor Michael Bloomberg are a knee-jerk reaction to last year's devastating snow storms.
He says there is a feeling that the mayor is overcompensating to make up for his highly criticised response to the storms.

source- http://www.abc.net.au