New York City Hurricane Obama Declares Emergency

President Barack Obama has declared an emergency for New York state in anticipation of Hurricane Irene, which has New York City in its sights as it storms up the Eastern Seaboard. The declaration means that the Homeland Security Department and the Federal Emergency Management Agency can coordinate disaster relief efforts. It also means the state can receive federal aid to supplement state and local emergency and cleanup assistance.
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has ordered the city’s first hurricane evacuations in history in advance of Hurricane Irene, expected to hit the area over the weekend. The city ordered a mandatory evacuation of Zone A of this map. Zone A is marked in orange.
Zone A includes low-lying coastal areas in parts of Manhattan, particularly Lower Manhattan, as well as Queens, Brooklyn and other points, including the Rockaways. Any New York residents who live near the water should either check the map or use the Hurricane Evacuation Zone Finder online. You can also call 311.
The projected path of the hurricane shows it going up the Atlantic coast and coming into contact with New York City and other metropolitan centers in the Mid-Atlantic by Sunday. Currently, winds are at around 100 mph.
Many airlines have cancelled flights in big cities near the path of the hurricane, including New York, Washington, and Raleigh, NC. Public events have been postponed across the Eastern seaboard, and even transit service in New York will be shut down by noon Saturday.
The President made remarks on the hurricane earlier this morning, and urged residents to follow evacuation procedures.
The hurricane looks big from space, but with 100mph winds it’s more like a Category 2 storm. That will do some damage, and officials are probably right to take an abundance of caution. But this storm is not as big as a Hurricane Katrina (which was of course more of a man-made disaster due to the failure of the levees. And it hasn’t made contact with the US landmass yet, which should reduce the wind level somewhat. It could be as low as a tropical storm by the time it hits New York. But we don’t really know.

Hurricane Irene Path and Emergency Action New York

Are your freezers full? Any space in your freezers -- FILL IT IN RIGHT NOW WITH PLASTIC BOWLS OR POP BOTTLES ALMOST COMPLETELY FULL OF WATER. (Remember, water expands when it freezes, so don't fill it to the brim.) The frozen water serves two purposes: 1, it is an emergency supply of water and 2, it keeps your food frozen longer if you lose power. Full freezers stay frozen longer than half full freezers.
Do you have a generator? Get extra gas for it, but bear in mind that a generator MUST be used outside, and if you put a generator outside you MUST have security to protect it. Generators (and also window air conditioning units) are stolen a lot in the aftermath of major disasters where power is lost for an extended time. Generators will also attract attention to you and your family. Bear that in mind before you fire it up.
Your frozen foods will be OK for up to 48 hours without power IF you do not open the freezer door, and you stuff every vacant spot in that freezer with bowls or bottles of water before you go to bed tonight at the latest. Right now would be better.
UPS and Fed Ex can get in before local roads reopen to the public. Lines at local stores for easy to prepare foods and drinks are long. Amazon will deliver, often times free if you watch what you buy, and they ship using UPS. Survival skills are important before during and after a hurricane.

Astronaut Ron Garan tweeted a picture of Hurricane Irene from the International Space Station on August 24, 2011:

"Ominous view #FromSpace of Hurricane #Irene east of the Bahamas @ 3:14pm EST today. East FL coast is calm b4 storm."

At Space.com, managing Editor Tariq Malik chatted with Expedition 28's Ron Garan, Satoshi Furukawa and Mike Fossum about the view of the massive storm from space on August 25, 2011.
"There's kind of a dome shape to the whole thing, with the eye fully formed," Fossum said. "Yesterday you could see the eye wall and down into the eye itself. You know that is a powerful storm, and those are never good news when they're headed your way. So our prayers and thoughts are with the people in its path."
Hurricane Irene is expected to hit the North Carolina coast on Saturday (Aug. 27) and follow the coastline north toward New York City.

NOAA Tropical storm force wind probabilities: 120 hours (5 days) from 2 p.m. Easter Aug. 25 to Aug. 30.

“The biggest threat in an urban high-density area is the stuff that’s blowing around the wind,” said Paul Beers, who as chief executive of West Palm Beach, Fla.-based Glazing Consultants, which specializes in building exteriors, is an expert in hurricane damage.

“The biggest threat from flying debris is breaking windows,” he added. “Then you have a loss of integrity of the building and the hurricane is inside the building.” Windows blow out on one side of the building, creating intense internal pressure on the other side until they break out and eventually collapsing a roof.

“If you lose one side of the building, the other side will blow out, too, because of all that pressure,” Beers said.

Moreover, water damage is a bigger danger to people thanks to storm surge, which is an abnormal rise of ocean waters — also loaded with debris — pushed to the shores by the force of the winds.

In New York, where the seawalls surrounding Manhattan, for example, are only five feet high in places, widespread flooding could occur, overwhelming subways, tunnels and roadways with what amounts to sewer water. Masters said that Irene could inundate portions of the coast under 10 feet to 15 feet of water “to the highest storm surge depths ever recorded