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ഐറീന്‍ ചുഴലിക്കാറ്റ്: ന്യൂയോര്‍ക്കില്‍ അടിയന്താരാവസ്ഥ

Published on 26 August, 2011
ഐറീന്‍ ചുഴലിക്കാറ്റ്: ന്യൂയോര്‍ക്കില്‍ അടിയന്താരാവസ്ഥ

വാഷിംഗ്ടണ്‍ : ബഹാമാസില്‍ കനത്ത നാശം വിതച്ച ഐറീന്‍ ചുഴലിക്കാറ്റ് യുഎസിന്റെ വടക്കുകിഴക്കന്‍ മേഖലയിലേയ്ക്കു നീങ്ങുന്ന സാഹചര്യത്തില്‍ ന്യൂയോര്‍ക്ക് സ്റ്റേറ്റ് ഗവര്‍ണര്‍ ആന്‍ഡ്രു കോമൊ അടിയന്തരാവസ്ഥ പ്രഖ്യാപിച്ചു.

ഐറീന്‍ ചുഴലിക്കാറ്റ് ശക്തി പ്രാപിച്ചതോടെ ഏതൊരു അടിയന്തര സാഹചര്യത്തേയും നേരിടാന്‍ സംസ്ഥാനം തയാറായിരിക്കണമെന്ന് ഗവര്‍ണര്‍ നിര്‍ദ്ദേശിച്ചു. ജനങ്ങളെ ഒഴിപ്പിക്കേണ്ടിവന്നാല്‍ നടപടി സ്വീകരിക്കുമെന്നും അദ്ദേഹം കൂട്ടിച്ചേര്‍ത്തു. മണിക്കൂറില്‍ 185 കിലോമീറ്ററാണ് കാറ്റിന്റെ വേഗം. ദക്ഷിണബഹാമാസിലെ ഒരു ദ്വീപിലെ 90% വീടുകളും ഐറീന്‍ ചുഴലിക്കാറ്റില്‍ തകര്‍ന്നു.

Governor Cuomo has declared a state of emergency in New York in preparation for the potential impact of Hurricane Irene, which may hit New York State this coming weekend.

The Governor is activating all levels of state government to plan for any situation that may be caused by the storm and the state government is carefully tracking the hurricane.

As the Governor readies the state, New Yorkers should personally prepare for serious storm conditions.

Click here to visit the Governor’s website, where you can find safety tips, the latest information on the hurricane, and links to critical services.

By working together and properly preparing in advance, we will all be able to face this storm in a calm and organized manner.

 

Hurricane watches were posted for New York and much of the Northeast on Friday morning as Hurricane Irene jogged northward, putting the whole of the East Coast on alert

The hurricane warning that was put into effect in North Carolina on Thursday was extended by the National Hurricane Center to Virginia, Maryland, Delaware and New Jersey on Friday morning, indicating that preparations for the storm should be completed as soon as possible.

The center said Friday morning that maximum winds at the center of the hurricane were 110 miles per hour, making it a Category 2 storm, down slightly from the 115-m.p.h. winds that were reported a day earlier. But it could gain strength as it approaches the coast.

Weather experts are exceedingly concerned about Irene because it is set to lash parts of the United States that are less accustomed to hurricanes, like the Jersey Shore and Long Island. The storm is expected to make landfall in North Carolina on Saturday, then scrape up the coast toward New York on Sunday.

A storm surge of 6 to 11 feet is expected along the coast here in North Carolina, where evacuations have been underway for days already and where more people were packing up and leaving before dawn on Friday. John Ratcliffe-Lee and his girlfriend, Kate, said they pulled out of the Four Seasons resort here at 5:20 a.m. Friday, having decided to leave the barrier island before dawn because they hoped traffic would be minimal.

They might have left a day earlier, but Mr. Ratcliffe-Lee turned 29 that day, and “Who wants to evacuate on their birthday?” he said by telephone. He said traffic was moving at normal speeds.

John H. Woolard, who is 79 years old, spent Thursday dragging furniture to the inside of his home, also 79, which sits on stilts overlooking the Atlantic Ocean in Kill Devil Hills. “I have never left,” he said proudly, showing off a photograph he took of a storm in 1962. “But I think I’m going to leave this time.”

“This one,” he said, referring to Hurricane Irene, “is dead on us.”

His assessment on Thursday remained true on Friday. The hurricane center has placed veritable bull’s-eyes on Wilmington, N.C.; Virginia Beach; Atlantic City; and New York City, jolting beachgoers and old-timers alike.

In an indication of how far the storm system could reach, a tropical storm warning is in effect for the northern half of the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland, and for the beaches of South Carolina, where the outer bands of the storm were already visible on radar.

The new hurricane watch on Friday morning extended from north of Sandy Hook, N.J., to the northern edge of Massachusetts, including Long Island, Block Island, Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket. Such a watch is typically issued 48 hours in advance of the first strong winds associated with a storm.

In Washington, the storm forced organizers to indefinitely postpone the dedication of the new memorial to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., which was scheduled for Sunday.

W. Craig Fugate, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said the hurricane was likely to drop as much as 10 inches of rain in some areas. “This will not just be a coastal storm,” he said. “We can see impacts well inland.”

Amtrak announced that it was canceling train service for Friday, Saturday and Sunday south of Washington because of the storm. Service in the Northeast Corridor is not affected.

Forecasters said Irene presented some unusual problems. For one thing, it is uncommonly large: hurricane-force winds of at least 74 m.p.h. extended 90 miles from its center on Friday, and winds of at least 40 m.p.h. reached up to 290 miles out.

The storm was also moving due north slowly, about 14 m.p.h., compared with speeds of 30 to 40 m.p.h. for similar storms, said Dennis Feltgen, a spokesman for the hurricane center. Both the hurricane’s size and slow pace could intensify flooding in the Middle Atlantic states and in the Northeast, where the ground is already saturated in places from heavy rains this summer.

A tropical storm warning was also in effect in South Carolina, and conditions along the coast there are expected to deteriorate as the hurricane passes on Friday. It spared Florida for the most part as it lashed the Bahamas, but the authorities in Palm Beach County said at least eight people were injured when they were hit by a hurricane-spawned wave on a Boynton Beach Inlet jetty, The Associated Press reported.

Emergencies were declared in five states, and evacuations were expanded as far north as New Jersey. “The latest tracking tells us that this is going to become more serious than less,” Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey said at a news conference.

The New Jersey evacuations were voluntary, for the time being. But here on the Outer Banks, they were mandatory, and tourists were told to leave the barrier islands as soon as possible.

NY Times

ഐറീന്‍ ചുഴലിക്കാറ്റ്: ന്യൂയോര്‍ക്കില്‍ അടിയന്താരാവസ്ഥ
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