Hurricane Irene Brings 'Never Sleeping' US City to Standstill

Over 2.3 million people on the American East Coast were evacuated in the eve of the approaching "monster" storm - hurricane Irene. Photo by BGNES

Hurricane Irene entered New York City late Saturday night local time, prompting Mayor Michael Bloomberg to appeal to all to stay inside.

The streets of the "City that Never Sleeps" quickly became deserted with residents anticipating the storm to hit full force some time Sunday. Currently the eye of Irene is over the Virginia coast.

NYC has sustained so far just five hurricanes with winds of over 120 km/h and the approaching one is expected to be stronger.

Downpours are reported all over the city and there are tornado warnings. The electric power company servicing Lower Manhattan, where the Wall Street financial district with the NYSE are located,  is considering a preventive shut down of the power supply.

The Mayor has ordered mandatory evacuation of 370 000 NYC residents, mostly from low areas, near the water.

"Nature is much stronger than us. The storm is entering New York. If you have not evacuated until now, we advise you to stay inside where you are," Bloomberg is quoted saying.

Over 3 700 have gone to shelters and thousands more – to family and friends. Some, however, have decided to stay in their homes. Most restaurants, fast food facilities and coffee shops in the city are closed for business.

Elevators in skyscrapers are also closed for use over the danger they can be blocked in case of a power outage. Sandbags for the prevention of floods are piled at Ground Zero (the place of September 11 2001, terrorist attacks) and around Freedom Tower (the monument in memory of September 11th that is currently being built)

Grocery stores and supermarkets remained opened until late at night.

All public transportation, including the subway, which is used by 5 million people a day, stopped at noon Saturday, in a first in the history of the city safety move. Taxi cabs are in abundance, however, according to reports.

North Carolina was the first State to be hit by the monster storm, bringing large-scale power outages. Over 1.8 million homes on the East Coast are without power.

Irene also brought to a halt all trains on the East Coast while thousands of flights are cancelled.

A large number of Bulgarian college students are also on the East Coast for the summer "Work and Travel" program.

Irene is a monster hurricane with a diameter of 820 km or about one third of the length of the entire US East Coast.

The US Department of Defense is on standby to help in rescue operations and has 225 trucks loaded with food, water and power generators. 18 helicopters are also on standby along with 101 000 servicemen from the National Guard.

Experts say the damage will be felt in weeks and months to come and in the worst case scenario is estimated at USD 11-12 B.

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