GEOMAGNETIC ACTIVITY CONTINUES: Earth's magnetic field is still reverberating from the impact of a CME on Sept. 9th with intermittant geomagnetic storms in progress around both poles. High-latitude sky watchers should remain alert for auroras mingling with the light of the waxing full Moon. Aurora alerts:text, voice.
Shawn Malone took the picture from the shores of Lake Superior near the city of Marquete. "Auroras appeared right after dusk, barely visible because of the moon," he says. "Gradually the fog moved in, creating a surreal landscape--the aurora and a fogbow!"
Hurricane Irene couldn't keep New York's financial district down. Wall Street's best-known market was not only running, but trading up on Monday morning.
Some traders who normally take trains to work in lower Manhattan drove instead on Monday to be sure they got to their posts on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, a unit of NYSE Euronext. Some said they were without power, but they made it in anyone because markets don't stop.
"We are all here and everything is up and running," said Kenneth Polcari, a managing director with ICAP Equities, who lives in Mount Kisko, N.Y. "Life goes on."
What’s left of Hurricane Irene — which technically no longer qualifies as a named storm — has now moved on to Eastern Canada. Residents of the eastern United States are waking up this morning to messes of various kinds.
While New York City was largely spared — though Staten Island and Queens were whacked fairly hard — surrounding states, especiallyConnecticut, and New Jersey, got a good thumping. As many as 700,000 people in Connecticut and 600,000 in New Jersey are without power in the wake Irene, and many will go without for as long as a week.
Power outages in others states, in no particular order: Vermont is reporting another 50,000 residents without power, and at one point or another, every single road in that state, except for Interstates 89 and 91, were closed from flooding.
Another 700,000 are without power in Massachusetts; 160,000 are without power New Hampshire; power is out for 171,000 in Maine; and power is out for 284,000 in Rhode Island.
Power outages were still being addressed this morning in Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina; another 20,000 or so are without power in the District of Columbia. Delaware has 39,000 without power, and a tornado touched down there; Pennsylvania, including the Phildelphia area, has about 400,000 without power. The total number of homes and businesses without power up and down the East Coast was in the neighborhood of six million.
An estimate of the cost of damage to insurers, conducted by Kinetic Analysis, a firm that predicts storm damage, is about $3 billion, down from an earlier estimate of $14 billion. The death toll so far is 25.
States begin the process of getting back to normal after Irene
Stripped of hurricane rank, Irene spent the last of its fury Sunday, leaving treacherous flooding and millions without power -- but an unfazed New York and relief that it was nothing like the nightmare authorities feared.
Emergency crews keep people at a safe distance from the Quechee Covered Bridge in Lebanon, N.H., as it flooded with water from the Ottauquechee River Sunday. A weakened but dangerous Tropical Storm Irene dumped up to half a foot of rain in places, flooded roads, knocked down trees and left more than 165,000 New Hampshire homes and businesses on the dark before blowing out of the state. (Polina Yamshchikov / AP Photo / August 28, 2011)
From the Associated Press
August 29, 2011, 7:23 a.m.
The storm that had been Hurricane Irene crossed into Canada overnight but wasn't yet through with the U.S., where flood waters threatened Vermont towns and big city commuters had to make do with slowly reawakening transit systems.
The storm left millions without power across much of the Eastern Seaboard, killed at least two dozen and forced airlines to cancel about 9,000 flights. It never became the big-city nightmare forecasters and public officials had warned about, but it caused the worst flooding in a century in Vermont.
Many of the worst effects arose from rains that fell inland, not the highly anticipated storm surge along the coasts. Residents of Pennsylvania and New Jersey nervously watched waters rise as hours' worth of rain funneled into rivers and creeks. Normally narrow ribbons of water turned into raging torrents in Vermont and upstate New York late Sunday, tumbling with tree limbs, cars and parts of bridges.
"This is not over," President Barack Obama said from the Rose Garden.
Hurricane Irene and the Routine of Emergency Response
Posted: 8/29/11 08:56 AM ET
As Hurricane Irene made its way up the east coast of the United States, we saw an impressive set of emergency measures taken by local, state and federal agencies. Increasingly sophisticated emergency response has become a fundamental and expected function of government in the developed world. We see this in the United States and we need to see enhanced capacity on a worldwide basis. There are three reasons for the need for more routinized and sophisticated emergency capacity. The first is that there are more people on the planet and here in the United States. We are approaching 7 billion people worldwide, and some projections call for world population to peak at 10 billion by the end of the century. The number of people in the pathway of exposure to danger grows daily. The second reason is that for the first time in world history most of the world's population lives in cities. Urban people depend on others to provide the basics of life: food, water and shelter. Some of the systems that deliver these necessities are fragile, and when disasters hit, it is difficult to avoid their impact. The third reason is that people like me love the ocean and have the means to live nearby.
In fact, while waiting out Irene in my apartment in New York City's Morningside Heights, my thoughts, fears and hopes centered on a narrow sand bar on the south shore of Long Island, where I have spent summers for nearly a quarter century. It's a place called Long Beach, New York. Long Beach has been a popular resort since early in the 20th century, and has survived many storms. Although I am not an environmental scientist, I work with them every day at Columbia University's Earth Institute. They have made me aware of the risks of owning property near the ocean, but it is a risk I knowingly take.
For the vast majority of Americans who could give a seagull's tail feather about Tropical Storm/Hurricane Irene, good luck trying to find something else interesting on television over the weekend.
The storm story had everything America's East Coast-centric media loves, especially on a slow-news August weekend: Unpredictability, the possibility of death and destruction and an East Coast location.
Which makes it by definition important.
Like it or not, Americans living thousands of miles away were going to see network reporters leaning into driving winds and rains like people who didn't know enough to come in out of the rain. CNN International even went full time with the U.S. East Coast storm although it had a ready-made Asian typhoon blasting through the Philippines and Taiwan too.
BAY CITY — As people up and down the East Coast return home after fleeing Hurricane Irene, the Great Lakes Bay Chapter of the American Red Cross is mustering its troops for a massive relief effort.
The Red Cross reported that more than 27,000 people spent Saturday night in shelters as the storm came ashore from North Carolina to New England. Thousands of Red Cross disaster workers have been dispatched to the area, along with more than 200 emergency response vehicles and tens of thousands of prepackaged meals.
Ken Vavra, interim executive director at the Great Lakes Bay Chapter of the Red Cross, said that they are accepting donations intended to help with the relief effort.
"We are definitely prepared to help," he said. "We will make sure any donations intended for the relief effort get there."
Money isn't the only donation that Red Cross officials are hoping for. The storm also forced Red Cross to cancel more than 50 blood drives that were scheduled along the East Coast, resulting in a shortage of nearly 1,400 units of blood at a time when blood supplies are vital.
To find a blood drive or for more information on how to donate, call the Great Lakes Bay Chapter of the American Red Cross at 989-892-1541.
Hurricane Irene: Was Media Coverage Overhyped? (VIDEO, POLL)
The Huffington PostJack MirkinsonFirst Posted: 8/29/11 08:48 AM ETUpdated: 8/29/11 09:37 AM ET
With Hurricane Irene in the rearview mirror, the media is playing its favorite game: examining its own coverage.
Seemingly the entire press gave the weekend over to Irene. On television, there was no escaping the coverage, as networks pulled in their top talent and blanketed the East Coast with correspondents.
But Irene was weaker than expected in many places along the East Coast — especially in New York City, where so much of the national media is located. As the predicted dire effects of the storm failed to materialize, many critics and reporters quickly pounced, saying that the media (and cable news in particular) had overhyped Irene and caused millions needless fear.
The Daily Beast's Howard Kurtz led the way on Sunday with a harshly critical column about cable news coverage.
"Cable news was utterly swept away by the notion that Irene would turn out to be Armageddon," he wrote. "...The tsunami of hype on this story was relentless, a Category 5 performance that was driven in large measure by ratings."
The Daily Telegraph's US correspondent Toby Harnden echoed that sentiment, writing that some of the coverage of Irene was "beyond parody."
This argument was quickly praised by many media watchers. It also received substantial pushback, especially from the cable news reporters who found themselves targets of criticism.
"Not overblown to the families of the people who died, or those who suffered damage in the billions," CNN's Soledad O'Brien tweeted to Kurtz on Sunday.
On Fox News, Shepard Smith read out a comment calling the storm a "tempest in a teacup."
"It's not, sir," he frostily responded. Later, Smith tweeted, "Even though it was a weaker storm remember all of those who will be affected by the flooding.
Some outside media watchers also scoffed at the argument. "The more stories I hear, the more flood images I see, the more I think people saying this was nothing are out to lunch," Reuters' Anthony DeRosa tweeted.
On Monday, the "Today" show devoted a long segment to the question. Not surprisingly, the panel the show assembled defended the coverage from the weekend. Al Roker responded to criticism that over-zealous coverage could breed complacency in people, since they might take more serious future warnings with a grain of salt.
Michele Bachmann would stop hurricanes by appointing God as her budget chief.Photo: Richard Ellis/Getty Images
Every time a natural disaster strikes, televangelist clown Pat Robertson is there to remind us that God is angry and the End Times are nigh. The recent earthquake and hurricane were no exception:
“It seems to me the Washington Monument is a symbol of America’s power. It has been the symbol of our great nation. We look at the symbol and we say ‘this is one nation under God.’ Now there’s a crack in it … Is that a sign from the Lord? … You judge. It seems to me symbolic,” Robertson said.
He cited Matthew’s Gospel, which mentions an “upheaval in the earth” as a sign of the End of Days. The earthquake is just a “birth pang” of the world to come, Robertson explained ...
Robertson prayed to God to send Hurricane Irene out to sea at the end of his Thursday broadcast. But if it hits us, it’s probably just another one of those “birth pangs.”
Of course, most people don't take Robertson seriously. Hurricanes and earthquakes have occurred regularly all over the world since before humankind existed. There was a time when they seemed to be the product of God's wrath, but geology and meteorology long ago provided much more plausible explanations. Nevertheless, there are still a few wacky cranks like Robertson to say things like this:
"I don't know how much God has to do to get the attention of the politicians. We've had an earthquake; we've had a hurricane. He said, 'Are you going to start listening to me here?' Listen to the American people because the American people are roaring right now. They know government is on a morbid obesity diet and we've got to rein in the spending."
Whoops! That wasn't Pat Robertson ridiculously claiming that God created a (very minor) earthquake and a (relatively unexceptional) hurricane because he was upset about the government's finances. It was Michele Bachmann. She's running for president.
Hurricane Irene: Lower Manhattan may lose power before Irene arrives, mayor says
August 27, 2011 8:14am
Even before Hurricane Irene arrives, Lower Manhattan and other low-lying areas of the city may lose power. In other words, not only will it be extraordinarily stormy in the big city over Saturday night, it could be extra dark.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg suggested that utility company Con Edison might shutdown critical facilities in Lower Manhattan as the storm approaches to prevent residents from getting trapped in elevators and water damage to power lines and other equipment.
“You can plan for a possibility of no power downtown,” Bloomberg said during a morning news conference in Coney Island where it was already drizzling. PHOTOS: In the path of Hurricane Irene The mayor again sternly advised New Yorkers who live in low-lying neighborhoods of the five boroughs to get moving. City officials issued an unprecedented order to more than 370,000 residents to evacuate these areas by 5 p.m.; the massive public transportation system is shutting down at noon.
“This is not a joke and let’s hope that it isn’t as bad as we’re preparing for. But your life could be in danger … You could be in [a] building that doesn’t have electricity or doesn’t have elevator service.”
He later added, "Staying behind is dangerous, staying behind is foolish and it's against the law."
Surging tides and high winds could bring salt water from the East River streaming through the streets of Lower Manhattan and other neighborhoods in Brooklyn and Queens, according to a Alfonzo Quiroz, a spokesman for Con Edison.
A decision would be made about turning off power as the storm moved in, he said.
“During an intense storm like this we have networks that serve tens of thousands of customers and they all may need to be deenergized due to flooding," Quiroz said. "Taking actions like this allows us to recover quicker. There’s salt in the water and that corrodes some of our wires and makes the damage much more intense. Once the water recedes, we’re able to let the equipment dry and safely reenergize.” http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/nationnow/2011/08/mayor-lower-manhattan-may-lose-power-even-before-irene-arrives.html
Hurricane Irene Hits North Carolina, Claims First Life
By OLIVIA KATRANDJIAN
Aug. 27, 2011
Hurricane Irene, the monster storm rolling up the East Coast, has claimed its first life, a North Carolina man killed outside his home by a tree limb that blew down this morning.
The man was hit while he was walking around his house this morning in a rural area of Nash County, where winds were roaring at more than 60 mph, county Emergency Management Director Brian Brantley told the Associated Press.
The center of Hurricane Irene hit the coast of North Carolina near Cape Lookout with Category 1-force winds of 85 mph.
Hurricane warnings for the next 48 hours have been issued for North Carolina, Virginia, Washington, D.C., Maryland, Delaware, New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, coastal Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts.
So far, eastern North Carolina has already seen three tornadoes in the past few days, and the majority of the state and areas of Maryland and Virginia are under tornado watches through Sunday.
Stacy township, on the coast of North Carolina, is seeing 93 mph wind gusts this morning.
The far end of the fishing pier in Atlantic Beach, N.C. collapsed overnight. The 100-foot long pier is still standing, but its end has disappeared into the ocean.
Nearly 200,000 homes in North Carolina are experiencing power outages, according to Power Energy.
Winds up to 85 mph ripped power lines from their poles, causing many of the shortages. The hardest hit areas were Wilmington and Wrightsville Beach, N.C.
"Our crews are restoring service as quickly as possible, where it is safe to do so," Power Energy tweeted.
All airports in the New York area will stop accepting arrivals at noon today. The airports expected to be impacted the most are in New York (Newark, John F. Kennedy and Laguardia), Philadelphia, Penn. and Charlotte, N.C.
The American Red Cross has opened 150 shelters across the northeast and is preparing to open dozens more as the storm moves north.
"We have operations in more than a dozen states. Our priority right now is sheltering," said Gail J. McGovern, the Head of American Red Cross in a press conference this morning.
"We're now in the middle of what could be one of the largest responses the Red Cross has had in recent memory," McGovern added.
McGovern encouraged people to register on "Safe and Well," a website that allows you to inform family members that you are okay.
Evacuations began Friday in New York City with the sick and the elderly.
NYU Langone Medical Center and the Veterans Affairs Hospital in Manhattan, two campuses of Staten Island University Hospital, and Coney Island Hospital have moved hundreds of patients to higher ground.
Today, around 370,000 people in zones the city has labeled A (closest to the water) and in the Rockaways have been ordered to evacuate. It is the first time New York has ever evacuated its residents because of a hurricane. "It is better to take precautions and get out of the storm. Mother nature is much stronger than all of us," said Mayor Michael Bloomberg in a press conference Friday.
Hurricane Irene is lashing North Carolina, with the fiercest winds on the Outer Banks expected to hit about noon. Howling winds, rain and high waves hit the coastline as the large storm brought down trees throughout eastern North Carolina, knocking out power to tens of thousands.
Irene first struck land at 7:30 Saturday morning near Cape Lookout, N.C., on the southern tip of the Outer Banks, and threatened to wreak havoc along a densely populated corridor stretching from the Mid-Atlantic through New England.
Irene weakened to a Category 1 storm as it slammed into North Carolina, with maximum sustained winds around 85 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center. But forecasters said Irene remained a menacing hurricane that could topple trees and power lines, trigger heavy floods and set off storm surges as high as 11 feet. Though the storm has lost some of its strength, it is large, causing flooding and bringing down trees far inland.
Nearly 200,000 homes in North Carolina were without power Saturday morning. Hardest hit were Wilmington and Wrightsville Beach, where Progress Energy reported 190,000 customers, mostly residences, were affected, according to the Associated Press.
In New Bern, N.C., a small river-exposed city about 30 miles inland from where Irene made landfall, winds were picking up and waters were rising. Guests in ground-floor rooms of the Hilton Riverfront Hotel were told at 8:30 a.m. to move to higher floors after water flowed over the bank of the Neuse River, about 100 feet from the hotel.
Water was lapping about one foot below ground-floor rooms after roughly half a foot of rain fell in the area overnight. The National Hurricane Center warned of potential storm surges of four to eight feet in hurricane-affected areas.
About 100 miles north of Cape Lookout in Kitty Hawk, N.C., anxious guests at the Hilton Garden Inn passed the time watching The Weather Channel and taking advantage of the still-working power by firing up coffee makers, reading online news and working out at the gym.
By late morning the storm was already being felt to the north. On the eastern shore of Virginia—a thin, rural peninsula north of Norfolk—gusts of wind barreled across rippling soybean fields and an empty main highway. At times the heavy sheets of rain felt more like hail pellets than water, but the violent bursts alternated with lulls of gentle rain.
Government emergency-response units along the East Coast continued moving personnel and equipment to respond to Hurricane Irene.
The Coast Guard—which has been setting port conditions and warning mariners of the approaching storm—has also moved many of its vessels and aircraft out of Irene's direct path. In addition, six of the service's Disaster Assistance Response Teams, river-rescue units equipped with shallow-draft, flat-bottomed boats, awere staging in areas that are expected to be hit by flood waters.
Virginia Task Force 1, an urban search-and-rescue team that deployed to Japan earlier this year after a devastating earthquake and tsunami, has also been activated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The task force—which has its own search-and-rescue specialists, structural engineers, medical specialists, and search dogs—is staging near Fort Bragg, N.C.
In states further north airports, governments and residents continued to prepare for Irene's arrival.
In New York City, the largest city in the Irene's path, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Saturday that power might be shut off in Lower Manhattan until Monday as a precaution against storm surges.
Hurricane Irene, the monster storm rolling up the East Coast, has claimed its first life, a North Carolina man killed outside his home by a tree limb that blew down this morning.
The man was hit while he was walking around his house this morning in a rural area of Nash County, where winds were roaring at more than 60 mph, county Emergency Management Director Brian Brantley told the Associated Press.
The center of Hurricane Irene hit the coast of North Carolina near Cape Lookout with Category 1-force winds of 85 mph.
Hurricane warnings for the next 48 hours have been issued for North Carolina, Virginia, Washington, D.C., Maryland, Delaware, New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, coastal Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts.
So far, eastern North Carolina has already seen three tornadoes in the past few days, and the majority of the state and areas of Maryland and Virginia are under tornado watches through Sunday.
Stacy township, on the coast of North Carolina, is seeing 93 mph wind gusts this morning.
The far end of the fishing pier in Atlantic Beach, N.C. collapsed overnight. The 100-foot long pier is still standing, but its end has disappeared into the ocean.
The storm made landfall at 7:30 a.m. (4:30 a.m. Arizona time) ET. Wind and rain knocked out power to nearly 200,000 customers along the North Carolina coast, North Carolina Gov. Beverly Perdue said.
"Our plan is executed now, our shelters are open, our search and rescue teams are all over the state," Perdue said at a news briefing.
About 8,000 people already have checked in to 81 shelters. Thirty emergency teams are stationed around the state along with 285 members of the National Guard.
Flash flooding already is a problem and some areas have gotten up to 8 inches of rain the governor said. In a plea to residents Perdue said bluntly: "Please stay inside."
Perdue said there were still some people who opted to stay behind but "the good news is our tourists evacuated very quickly."
She said the storm may not be nearly as bad as anybody predicted, but "get ready, she's still a hurricane and people need to respect her."
More than 2 million people along the East Coast have been warned, or ordered, to flee the storm's path. Millions more as far north as Maine hunkered down for a weekend of historic wind and rain.
