More from The Weather Channel: ”29 MILLION PEOPLE UNDER A HURRICANE WARNING.” YOU WILL ALL DIE FROM A STORM NOWHERE NEAR AS STRONG AS KATRINA. Note to readers: Please take warnings seriously and be smart about what’s happening with Hurricane Irene, but let’s not panic.
Irene is a hurricane that poses an extraordinary threat and is one that no one has yet experienced in North Carolina to the mid-Atlantic to the Northeast and New England [emphasis added]. This includes Norfolk, Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York City, Hartford, and Boston.A statement on the Weather Channel Web site (via the WaPo’s great media writer, Erik Wemple) • Revealing just a wee bit of hubris might be taking over the network’s Hurricane Irene coverage. Because, um, let’s face it, while it’s probably a big storm, it’s not the most uncommon thing in the world for a Category 2 hurricane to head up the East Coast. Let’s be realistic about what we’re dealing with, guys.
Calm before the storm: Via our friends at AltDaily comes a video from Norfolk resident and AltDaily writer Keegan Morrison, who put a camera outside of his condo, then threw it on a timelapse. Look at those results. Yes, the storm is scary, but beauty comes from chaos sometimes. (Editor’s note: I briefly helped with the Norfolk-based AltDaily in its embryonic stage. — Ernie @ SFB)
Hurricane Irene path: Google just threw up a pretty useful hurricane-tracker tool to follow Irene. (Here’s the article they wrote about the tool, which lets you sort between a number of different metrics.) The giant cloud imagery really puts the hurricane in sharp contrast. Currently engulfed by the storm? North Carolina. Virginia Beach is next. DC and Baltimore will miss the worst of it (though us DC folks got nailed by a heavy ten-minute storm about three hours ago). Philly, NJ and NYC are directly in the path, particularly Long Island.
Somebody just make him stop talking. Frakkin hell.
Former New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin appeared on the CBS Early Show Friday morning to offer his advice to those preparing for Hurricane Irene. In the interview conducted by Chris Wragge, he referred several times to his experiences during Hurricane Katrina to make his points.
After saying…
But didn’t he face criticism over many of his decisions when handling Katrina? Why are we asking him?
So, it appears DC’s metro system is staying open durring the hurricane. Well, underground, that is. But wait, don’t those underground stations have GIANT FREAKING ENTRANCES that would be perfect for floodwater to fill up?
Shit. Is. Getting. Real.
Philly and NJ also plan to shut down their systems. And Bloomberg just ordered residents in low-lying areas to evacuate. No word on DC yet, which is being pretty piss-poor about planning for this.
I cannot stress this highly enough. If you are in the projected path of this hurricane, you have to take precautions now. Don’t wait. Don’t delay.President Barack Obama • Warning people about the danger of Hurricane Irene, which is likely to be the strongest hurricane the Northeast has seen in a few years. For what it’s worth, the storm — currently a Category 2 — will likely be a Category 1 when it hits the Northeast, so it won’t be a super-strong hurricane. Just a really big, slow-moving one that will remain strong hundreds of miles from the center. Amongst major metropolitan areas, it looks like the Virginia Beach/Norfolk area is about to face a strong hit from the storm. source (via • follow)
This, friends, is what The Bahamas is currently dealing with. This is what is heading up the coast tonight. Good luck to all of our friends in Norfolk, Va., where a mandatory evacuation warning was just issued for low-lying areas. (src @Journtoolbox, video by UltimateChase.com)
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Dedication of Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial postponed indefinitely due to Hurricane IreneVia APNewsAlert. Rochelle Riley of the Detroit Free Press broke the story.
The Latest on Hurricane Irene:
- 200,000 tourists are evacuating from North Carolina. (LA Times)
- It’s likely to cause more injuries in the Bahama’s than 1999’s Hurricane Floyd, and it really looks like it’s heading for the New York City area. (Reuters)
- NBC is worried Irene is going to attract online scammers to infect your computers with spyware and malware. Here’s how to avoid it.
- While the hurricane is expected to cause as much as $20 billion in damages, it’s helping businesses like Lowe’s, Target, and Home Depot because of boosts in sales of emergency supplies. (Bloomberg)
“This is everything a hurricane can be, and it’s on one of those worst-case tracks for the East Coast,” Dennis Feltgen, a spokesman for the National Hurricane Center told NPR. “Usually, hurricanes that get up into the higher latitudes are fast-moving,” he said. “This one isn’t — which means it will be a powerful, slow-moving storm that could be doing a lot of damage.”
North Carolina, New York, and New Jersey have already declared a state of emergency ahead of the hurricane’s arrival. Whether or not NYC will order evacuations is still to be determined.
(Photo via NASA Goddard Photo and Video’s Flickr)
Great Irene roundup via our former intern, Justin Jones.
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