Floodwaters surge as Tropical Storm Irene lashes Northeast
August 28, 2011 3:07 p.m. EDT
New York (CNN) -- Trees toppled and streets flooded Sunday as Irene lashed some of the biggest cities in the Northeast with wind gusts and torrential rains.
Even as Irene weakened to a tropical storm, authorities in the region warned that its impact was not waning.
"We're not out of the woods yet. Irene remains a large and potentially dangerous storm," U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano told reporters as Irene hit New England.
Officials said the storm had knocked out power to more than 4 million people and was responsible for at least 15 deaths in six states.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said flooding in his state was widespread and advised residents to stay indoors.
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"It's crazy. ... The water is moving between buildings, up, down, all sorts of different directions," Rich Graessle told CNN's iReport.
In New York City's lower Manhattan, the Hudson River overflowed. It later receded -- but not before sending massive amounts of water spilling over jogging paths and pouring into at least one nearby apartment building. Water also lapped over the banks of the city's East River early Sunday, but later receded. CNN affiliate WCBS reported serious flooding in Brooklyn.
Before the storm hit, Irene left streets looking barren and desolate in "the city that never sleeps." Shelves upon empty shelves greeted shoppers at stores. Caution tape barricaded the turnstiles at closed subway stops.
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg told reporters Sunday afternoon that the worst of the storm had passed, and waters would soon recede. No deaths or injuries were reported, and Bloomberg said he planned to lift an evacuation order at 3 p.m. ET.
But the mayor said Irene still had "very serious consequences" in the city, including "serious flooding" in all five of its boroughs.
Firefighters helped evacuate dozens of people from flooded homes in areas of Staten Island where neck-deep water was reported, the New York City Fire Department said.
Metropolitan Transit Authority chief Jay Walder said lines on the Metro-North system had flooded, eroding tracks and causing significant damage.
The threat of flooding extended beyond New York City. Outside Philadelphia, waters had already climbed to street-sign levels in Darby, Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter said, with the water sending "couches, furniture, all kinds of stuff floating down the street."
Waves pounded the shoreline in Long Beach, New York, as water poured underneath the boardwalk and into the city's downtown area.
By 2 p.m. ET Sunday, Tropical Storm Irene had maximum sustained winds of 60 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center. The storm was moving over southern New England, with its center about 15 miles south of Pittsfield, Massachusetts. The hurricane center warned that an "extremely dangerous storm surge" was expected in Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts and parts of Long Island, New York.
The storm slammed into Little Egg Inlet, New Jersey, as a Category 1 hurricane around 5:30 a.m., the hurricane center said, hitting cities along the coast as it hurtled toward New York City.
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Mayor's door-to-door warning The U.S. government said wind damage alone is expected to top $1 billion.
Authorities in Ocean City, Maryland, reopened the evacuated city.
"It was a long night last night, but I can tell you, we dodged a missile here at Ocean City," Mayor Rick Meehan told reporters.
While Irene dumped 12 inches of rain by early Sunday morning in Ocean City, there was no major flooding. The maximum storm surge coincided with low tide, preventing the flooding that had been feared. Timing "made a significant difference," Meehan said.
But flooding remained a concern in many areas, said Craig Fugate, head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
"Assessments are still coming in," Fugate said Sunday morning, noting that Virginia reported particularly high rainfalls.
Some parts of inland southern Virginia saw 16 inches of rain, while top winds were clocked at 83 mph as the storm scoured the state's coast on Saturday, officials said.
"Undoubtedly, there will be more reports of damage, of injuries, perhaps fatalities," Gov. Bob McDonnell told reporters.
Powerful gusts were so strong in some states that pedestrians struggled to stay upright. Storm surges along the East Coast turned at least one beach into an extension of the ocean.
Two buildings collapsed in Philadelphia, Nutter told reporters, but no one was injured.
A nuclear power reactor in Calvert Cliffs, Maryland, automatically went offline late Saturday after a piece of aluminum siding from a building struck a transformer amid strong winds.
"The facility is safe; there is no impact to employees or our neighbors," said Mark Sullivan, spokesman for the Constellation Energy Nuclear Group. "There is no threat."
Officials have blamed at least 15 deaths across the affected region on Irene -- one each in Connecticut, Maryland and Florida, two in New Jersey, six in North Carolina and four in Virginia.
Irene first made landfall in the United States Saturday in North Carolina near Cape Lookout at the southern end of the Outer Banks. It stomped across the state for most of the day, and left a significant footprint long after it had left.
Pounding surf washed over dunes, covering roads with water and sand. Flooding of Highway 12 north of Rodanthe, North Carolina, left about 2,500 people stranded Sunday on Hatteras Island in the Outer Banks, Dare County officials said.
State and local teams were inspecting bridges and roads to determine the extent of the damage and the need for repairs, officials in Dare County, North Carolina, told CNN. An emergency ferry Monday will provide assistance to people on the island, who chose to ride out the storm there despite mandatory evacuation orders, officials said.
Rushing water ripped away an entire section of at least one coastal road, aerial photographs of the island showed.
Authorities had closed more than 200 roads and 21 bridges across the state as they assessed damage Sunday.
The storm tore off roofs, toppled trees, induced "massive flooding" near the coast and brought down power lines statewide, according to the state emergency management division.
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