Recovery from Tropical Storm Irene in New York

Michael Kirby Smith for the New York Times

Sam Dolnick
August 28, 2011

Many of the streets of New York City, as well as suburbs were flooded in low-lying areas while Tropical Storm Irene, continued to the New England area after the storm that Sunday. The Eastern Seaboard has been left with millions of homes without power where fallen trees have brought down many wires. Even though the storm was down graded from a hurricane to a tropical storm before it hit New York, firefighters in boats rescued more than 60 people from 5 foot flooding on Staten Island and at least 5 storm-related deaths were reported in New York and New Jersey. New York City prepared for the storm by shutting down the mass- transit network, sandbagging Fifth Avenue, and issuing and evacuation of 370,000 people in the city. Even though it was down graded from a hurricane, the storm reached 65 miles per hour winds, causing it to be the largest storm to hit the city in 25 years. A lot of the damage was mainly noticed in the suburbs and adjacent states with the large areas with lost power and flooding. In New Jersey more than 800,000 people were without power, and in Philadelphia had reached flooding levels that have not been seen for 140 years. Despite the smaller amount of damage than was expected, many people were happy with the preparations that were made for a worse case disaster.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/29/nyregion/wind-and-rain-from-hurricane-irene-lash-new-york.html?pagewanted=all