Hurricane Irene caused chaos on the East Coast of the United States. While it hasn’t been as devastating as Americans feared, the damage is estimated in the tens of billions of dollars.
One million people evacuated in New Jersey, New York turned into a ghost town in less than 24 hours, planes grounded, more than three million people without DIMA electricity, nuclear power plants shut down. Hurricane Irene, a “monster” 850 km in diameter, caused chaos on the eastern seaboard of the United States this weekend. It might be remembered as one of the most devastating storms in US history. Not so much in strength: she was demoted from Category 2 in the Bahamas to Category 1 on the Safir-Simpson scale, which has 5, then to tropical storm level upon arrival in New York. But above all by the floods and the massive power cuts it caused. The cost of the damage is already estimated in tens of billions of dollars over a long stretch of the American coastline, where more than 65 million people live. From Norfolk to Boston via Washington DC, the federal capital, Philadelphia or New York, the most populous city in the United States with its 8 million inhabitants, Irene will hardly have spent more than a few hours in each place, not to mention the heavy rains that preceded and followed it. But six years after Katrina, the Category 4 hurricane that claimed more than 1,800 lives and devastated much of New Orleans, US authorities have been unwilling to take the risk. They have taken exceptional precautionary measures.
Food and water supplies
Unheard of in New York in particular. In anticipation of the floods, the metro was closed at noon on Saturday. Five hospitals were evacuated. 250,000 people have been ordered to leave southern Manhattan, Brooklyn and Staten Island. Police patrolled lower Manhattan overnight from Saturday to Sunday, calling on people to leave with megaphones. “It’s a matter of life and death,” New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg warned in the afternoon, less than 24 hours before Irene arrived in the Big Apple around 8 am, local time, Sunday. Barack Obama sounded the alarm on Friday, imploring Americans and tourists on the East Coast to listen to safety instructions and to evacuate risk areas. He had left his place of residence on Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, that same evening to return to Washington and appeared at a Fema (Federal Emergency Management Agency) rescue center on Saturday, a politically symbolic gesture. In New York, taxis have been instructed to take as many passengers as possible at the same time. They charged $ 10 per ride per person per area. A thousand officers of the National Guard were mobilized.
Broadway theaters all closed on Saturday, Times Square, usually teeming with people, was empty. Restaurants, bars, shops were closed. Many had even plastered their facades with plywood boards. “Sorry, we’ll reopen on Monday,” read the sheets of paper hastily pasted in the storefronts. “Come on, Irene,” the more daring wrote. Incredible spectacle. In a matter of hours, New York, the city that never sleeps, has become a dead city, with people staying in their homes after spending all Saturday clearing shops. They had stocked up on water, food, torches, batteries… and alcohol. Movie studios were expecting a 20% drop at the box office this weekend. But the sessions took place in front of the television. Millions of Americans remained glued to their screens all weekend. With their feet in the water or their bodies braced against the gusts of wind, the reporters could not resist apocalyptic formulas with forceful gestures in front of the weather charts.
The Hudson River began to overflow
It was in Cape Lookout, North Carolina, that Irene first touched the US coast early Saturday morning. Classified category 1, it reached winds of 140 km / h and advanced slowly towards the north. Cape Lookout is well known to sailors. People come to protect themselves at the foot of its beautiful black and white checkered lighthouse behind its large earthen barrier. On Saturday there was not a boat in sight. From North Carolina to New York, savvy mariners had lifted their sailboats out of the water. The others risked destruction. Several boats have been seen crashing into rocks or beaches on television screens.
After North Carolina, Irene continued her course over the ocean, gaining further strength and touching the states of Virginia, Maryland, Delaware and New Jersey one after another with varying consequences depending on the topographic structure. sides. In New York on Sunday morning, it was hoped that Irene would have eased to the level of a tropical storm in contact with land along the coast of New Jersey to the south and cooler Atlantic waters at that latitude before touching the city. At eight o’clock in the morning, the National Hurricane Center announced that the hurricane, which was only 64 kilometers from New York, was still classified in category 1 with regular winds of 120 km / h. On either side of southern Manhattan Island, the Hudson River and East River began to overflow. The Holland Tunnel connecting New Jersey and flooded Manhattan has been partially closed, as have the two ring roads around Manhattan.
Some 50,000 people were already without electricity in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island. But around 9 o’clock, the wish of New Yorkers in their homes was heard! Weakened, Irene hit the very touristic Coney Island, now deserted, at the level of a strong tropical storm with winds reaching 104 km / h. At the same time, further south in North Carolina, Virginia and Maryland, where it had already passed, the damage was assessed, while further north, the city of Boston in turn announced the closure of its transport network. The authorities listed nine victims Sunday morning, more than three million people without electricity, many trees uprooted and damaged power lines.
“Don’t let your guard down”
To the question of the CNN reporter who asked Craig Fugate, the head of Fema around 10 a.m., if Irene had not been less devastating than expected, the man with the impassive gaze refrained from giving a definitive answer : “Do not let your guard down, this is not the time to leave your house, it is still a very dangerous period, the floods continue, the trees are still at risk of being pulled up.” “Don’t be stupid, let the emergency services fix the damage and wait for my green light,” said New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.
The greatest number of victims in a hurricane is due to flooding. In addition, the entire east coast being saturated with water after a very rainy summer, the soils are less solid; with sustained winds for long hours and continuous rains, trees can still fall for hours. For the boss of Fema, the number one concern remains floods and power cuts. The agency could not yet say on Sunday what percentage of outages was due to Irene or to preventive measures taken by the power companies.
At the end of the morning, however, the relief was visible everywhere. In New York, the sky had cleared up. The head of internal security Janet Napolitano announced around 11 am that “the worst was over”. Not listening to the safety instructions, the New Yorkers began to go out to see the extent of the damage. Life was slowly resuming while waiting for the metro to reopen. According to the boss of the Metropolitan Transport Authority, which controls the city’s main transport networks, that may not be the case until the end of the day today. A serious problem in New York where 5 million people take the subway every day. As America begins to calculate the extent of the damage, Irene continues on her way north, where she will die in the coming days in Canada. The next tropical storm is called José. It is the tenth depression of the season. She should be a lot less fierce.
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