HURRICANE FORCES A STATE OF EMERGENCY TO NEW YORK CITY

NEW YORK, U.S.A. – As much stipulated, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has issued the city's first-ever mandatory evacuation and a state of emergency order for large parts of the city. The zone to be evacuated by 5 p.m. Saturday is home to over 250,000 people, and includes parts of the financial district in Lower Manhattan as well as sections along the Hudson and East rivers, AFP reported on Friday.

• The subway and bus system -- the city's lifeline -- is also going to be closed from Saturday to Monday, which will paralyze the city since many people in New York do not own a vehicle.
• Through the weekend, Irene is expected to hit the barrier islands of North Carolina Saturday afternoon, eventually making its way northward along the coast to Boston and points farther north.
• "I don't see it falling apart. There's nothing in the atmosphere that would kill it altogether," said Bill Read of the National Hurricane Center. "I would prepare for the worst and hope for the best."
• US President Barack Obama has cut short his vacation on the Massachusetts island of Martha's Vineyard. He asked the people to stick to the rules of evacuation, saying, "Don't wait, don't delay."
• Hurricanes are rare on the US eastern seaboard, with over 65 million people living in the densely populated cities from Washington to New York and Boston, which is known as the Boswash megalopolis.
• Along with powerful winds, heavy rains and harsh inland surges of water are also expected.
• Hurricane Irene is still a Category 2 storm, with winds around 100 miles (about 160 kilometers) per hour. However, the mayor warned New Yorkers not to be fooled because "the sun is shining." Bloomberg said Irene is a "dangerous storm," and "it's heading basically directly for us."
• The National Hurricane Center warned on Friday that Irene could become a Category 4 storm by Thursday, with wind speeds of at least 131 mph (over 210 kph).

Forecasters continue to warn that Irene is shaping up to be the storm of the century for the North East as hurricane warnings and state of emergencies have been issued for New York and New Jersey.
Hurricane watches are now in effect f or the east coast from North Carolina to New York Harbor, including Virginia, the Chesapeake bay, the Delaware Bay, and along the Jersey Shore extending beyond Sandy Hook.
The National Hurricane center reports the storm stretches almost 600 miles wide and will carry a storm surge of 5 to 10 feet as it heads up the east coast and continues on its forecast track which currently has a 90% probability of directly hitting Wall Street.

Source: agency