Have you read about the Great New England Hurricane of 1938? Well they are comparing Hurricane Irene to that Hurricane of 1938. In preparation Gov. Andrew Cuomo declared a state of emergency for New York. Check out the full story after the jump.
MANHATTAN — Gov. Andrew Cuomo declared a state of emergency Thursday afternoon as Hurricane Irene churned its way toward New York.
The move allows the state to move resources to the city and surrounding area should the storm cause major damage here.
“In this emergency I am activating all levels of state government to prepare for any situation that may be caused by Hurricane Irene,” Cuomo said in a statement. “By working together, we will all be able to face this storm in a calm and organized manner.”
The MTA also released a statement late Thursday afternoon asking New Yorkers to brace for service cuts should serious weather hit the city.
“Because of the severity of the wind and rain associated with a hurricane, there may be partial or full shut down of our services to ensure the safety of our customers and employees,” an agency spokesman said. “We urge our customers to check mta.info frequently and to consider the impacts of this storm when making travel plans through the weekend.”
Con Edison officials said the utility is on high alert for possible power outages and gas and steam problems.
Meanwhile, city officials and agencies are gearing up in case New York takes a direct hit from Hurricane Irene, a strengthening storm on a path that could lead it either directly over or within 30 miles of New York City on Sunday.
“We hope for the best, but prepare for the worst,” Mayor Michael Bloomberg said at a press conference in Queens Thursday morning.
The city activated it’s Emergency Operations Center on Wednesday. Crews are working feverishly to clean out the city’s 143 catch basins to help lessen the chances of flooding. The city has invested $2 billion citywide in sewer upgrades since 2002, which has helped reduce flooding, especially in areas like western Queens, Bloomberg said.
Joe Bruno, commissioner of the city’s Office of Emergency Management, said New York could get up to 6 to 12 inches of rainfall from Irene, a deluge that would cause serious flood problems if the city’s drainage systems become overwhelmed.
Irene intensified into a major Category 3 hurricane as it battered the Bahamas Wednesday. Meteorologists are confident that Irene will pound the outer banks of North Carolina Saturday as either a Category 3 or Category 4 storm.
After that point, Irene is expected to hit within 30 miles of the city Sunday as a weaker Category 2 hurricane, bringing with it destructive gusts of up to 100 mph across Long Island, eastern New Jersey and southwestern New England.
“This is weather. There is no certainty as to what it’s about to do,” Bruno said Thursday. “The models indicate it is likely to come our way and impact mid to Eastern Long Island.”
Even if the storm stays on its current projected path, damaging tropical storm force winds (between 40 and 70 mph) could cause widespread tree damage, major power outages and structural damage to buildings, including shattered glass along the sides of New York City skyscrapers. If Irene tracks more to the west, the impact on New York City will be much more severe, AccuWeather meteorologists predict.
Bloomberg urged residents to check if they live in hurricane evacuation zones through the Office of Emergency Management. A map of high risk areas is also available from WNYC.
While Hurricane Bob came close to the city in 1991, the Big Apple has not suffered a direct hit from a hurricane since a Category 1 storm made landfall east of Coney Island in August 1893.
Mayor Bloomberg said the heads of all the city’s emergency response teams are ready for all contingencies. The Parks Department has a plan in place to handle any tree damage and the Sanitation Department has instructed all street cleaners to be on the look out for clogged storm drains. The NYPD has several helicopters and 33 police boats on standby for the storm.
The MTA is also preparing for the possibility of flooding in the subway system. The authority said it is working closely with the city and state to track the storm and plan for any emergency procedures.
Bloomberg said the city will wait until it’s absolutely necessary to give evacuation orders and in the worst case scenario he would order mandatory evacuations.
“The only reason you issue an order like that is you think people’s lives are in jeopardy,” the mayor said Thursday.
Bloomberg said city residents should check out the city’s hurricane guide on NYC.gov or call 311 to see if they live in a flood evacuation area. He urged people living in those areas to find someone inland to stay with during the storm as a precaution. The MTA said it was ready to assist in any possible evacuation.
The city also put out a hurricane evacuation map that shows neighborhoods that could be affected by flooding.
Irene has already wrought destruction in the Bahamas and across the Caribbean as it thrashed over the areas. The two southern islands of the Bahamas were severely damaged early Thursday when it pummeled them as a Category 3 hurricane with winds up to 115 mph.
National Hurricane Center director Bill Read drew comparisons from Irene to a 1938 hurricane that also approached from the South and killed 682 people in New England. The eye of that storm missed New York City to the East, but caused millions of dollars in damage and left 10 people dead, according to Weather.com.
