News Surfer: irene

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisIhbVJNNOAwjimT5qQg15FKaGvZvvUuhvo4ONP9M0yM8wpyGFlcP_sLpv-9YdQR23_9x8uiCE3Vg39LMCGDy3DCsuCMD6FQ7rwZtG1c8QmcH_7KMRhRx79XJLddt09tGab1q0bQVOICI/s1600/IreneBahamas_1980980c.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="199" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisIhbVJNNOAwjimT5qQg15FKaGvZvvUuhvo4ONP9M0yM8wpyGFlcP_sLpv-9YdQR23_9x8uiCE3Vg39LMCGDy3DCsuCMD6FQ7rwZtG1c8QmcH_7KMRhRx79XJLddt09tGab1q0bQVOICI/s320/IreneBahamas_1980980c.jpg" width="320" /></a></div> Disastrous hurricane Irene latest photos<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSWE3YT21_A28hrQ18t6oaP5UWXSQjnUeIX1q6FsDSN-c7aAo80zrBX4LJYthxEiz-nsPBKUaC32aI4iOBnlE8c8uGagwPREUoVnHX4u6UlsX2Mt0J7mK1GH7tH5Ep8rLuuccyBmZZWVY/s1600/582323main_20110825_IreneISS_670.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSWE3YT21_A28hrQ18t6oaP5UWXSQjnUeIX1q6FsDSN-c7aAo80zrBX4LJYthxEiz-nsPBKUaC32aI4iOBnlE8c8uGagwPREUoVnHX4u6UlsX2Mt0J7mK1GH7tH5Ep8rLuuccyBmZZWVY/s320/582323main_20110825_IreneISS_670.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4MwHAtcMzD1-RQBni6cRlLe7pvHVKq6HTRrRZdytyfkDDeJYYyk7zV2MKF-t3XUKERgR9CnmfrZ3exf4y4uu_JGZlnjWnUCHjrZ8tt9GyTlA-A7ivhbJMLlv2aQP8PTkEr8pACOWBsGI/s1600/hurricaneirene.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="286" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4MwHAtcMzD1-RQBni6cRlLe7pvHVKq6HTRrRZdytyfkDDeJYYyk7zV2MKF-t3XUKERgR9CnmfrZ3exf4y4uu_JGZlnjWnUCHjrZ8tt9GyTlA-A7ivhbJMLlv2aQP8PTkEr8pACOWBsGI/s320/hurricaneirene.jpg" width="320" /></a></div> source - nasa<br />
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Hurricane Irene photos

Disastrous hurricane Irene latest photos source - nasa

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Tens of thousands of Americans are fleeing low-lying  areas as the "historic" Hurricane Irene bears down on the United States'  east coast.</div>
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.<br />
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.<br />
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.<br />
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".<br />
"If you are in the projected path of this hurricane you have to take precautions now," he said.<br />
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".<br />
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.<br />
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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.</div>
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Michael Bloomberg</div>
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"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.<br />
Neighbouring New Jersey on Thursday ordered 750,000 people out of the Cape May area.<br />
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.<br />
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.<br />
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.<br />
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.<br />
"We haven't seen a hurricane threat  like this in quite a few decades," said Chris Vaccaro, a spokesman from  the National Weather Service.<br />
"This is going to be a very long weekend for the residents of the Mid-Atlantic and the north-east."<br />
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.<br />
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<a class="inline-caption" href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-08-27/hurricane-nears-us-east-coast/2858338"><strong>Video:</strong> US braces for Hurricane Irene <span class="source">(ABC News)</span>       </a></div>
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New Yorkers 'oblivious'</h3>
But despite the  warnings, many New Yorkers appear "oblivious" to the impending storm  according to an ABC broadcaster in New York.<br />
Journalist Scott  Spark says that although some New Yorkers are acutely aware of how  devastating the hurricane could be, others are simply unfazed.<br />
"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.<br />
"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. <br />
"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."<br />
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.<br />
He says there is a feeling that the mayor is overcompensating to make up for his highly criticised response to the storms.<br />
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source- http://www.abc.net.au </div>

Hurricane Irene

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