Hurricane Irene tracked northward as it moved through the Caribbean and headed for the Mid-Atlantic coast. Residents are scrambling to prepare as FEMA — the Federal Emergency Management Agency — sets its expectations for the coming storm. As Federal Eye blogger Ed O’Keefe reported:
Hurricane Irene appears headed towards the Mid-Atlantic and New England regions this weekend — areas that haven’t endured tropical storm-force winds and rain in years.
And the Federal Emergency Management Agency, panned by Southerners almost six years ago for its inept response to Hurricane Katrina, is reminding Americans up north that they should turn first to local and state authorities in advance of the storm.
“If the public’s seeing FEMA, it’s most likely if we’ve had impacts and we have requests for assistance,” the agency’s administrator, Craig Fugate , told reporters Thursday. “Otherwise, we’re doing things to get ready, but we’re not getting in front of the governor’s teams, we’re there to support them.”
President Obama, who is vacationing on Martha’s Vineyard in the storm’s potential path, received an update on the storms from Fugate, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, and other officials on Thursday morning.
In the Washington area, FEMA’s regional office is coordinating with the National Park Service and D.C.-area officials regarding any potential affects of the hurricane on Sunday’s planned dedication of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial. Any final decisions on the event’s schedule will be made by the Park Service and District government, Fugate said.
Forecast s for the path of Hurricane Irene shifted slightly westward on Thursday, increasing the chances for the East Coast to be hit hard by wind, rain and flooding. As Capital Weather Gang’s Jason Samenow explained:
Hurricane Irene, 645 miles south of Cape Hatteras, is less than two days away from initiating a devastating blow to a large section of the East Coast. While its intensity has held steady since last night, the risk to much of the eastern seaboard has grown larger as computer models have nudged its track westward, closer to the coast, if not slightly inland.
Not only are severe impacts likely for coastal regions from the Outer Banks of North Carolina to New England, but interior sections of the mid-Atlantic, including the Richmond, Washington, D.C., Baltimore, and Philadelphia may also experience major effects from Irene
NOAA’s Hydrometeorological Prediction Center stated this morning:
[Irene] potentially could be extremely destructive with massive disruptions to society and commerce along its entire track with very high winds/storm surge/ocean overwash/beach erosion/sound and bay side coastal flooding and extreme tide potential. Widespread heavy rains in the 6-10 inch range will be common with greatly increased inland flood potential.
In North Carolina, where hurricane conditions could begin within 48 hours, mandatory evacuations have been ordered for the North Carolina Outer Banks and a hurricane watch extends from Surf City to the Virginia border. A tropical storm watch extends southward to Edisto Beach in South Carolina.
For Washington D.C., the arrival of Hurricane Irene is the second natural event to disrupt normal life after the earthquake and subsequent aftershocks that hit the area earlier in the week. As the Post’s Michael Ruane and William Branigin reported:
Still shaken by Tuesday’s earthquake, the Washington area braced for Hurricane Irene, which prompted the governors of Maryland and Virginia to declare states of emergency Thursday and forced the U.S. Navy to send dozens of its ships out to sea from their southeastern Virginia bases.
The hurricane, a Category 3 storm churning its way past the Bahamas Thursday on a path projected to take it up the Eastern Seaboard, threatened to wreck the plans of weekend beachgoers and disrupt the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial dedication Sunday on the Mall.
The powerful hurricane was expected to dump several inches of rain on the area Saturday as it moves up the Atlantic Coast.
And although it was still hundreds of miles away, meteorologists said it could produce stormy and treacherous conditions along the beaches of North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware and New Jersey as it passes.
As the storm approached, Virginia Gov. Robert F. McDonnell (R) declared a state of emergency, telling residents of low-lying areas in the eastern part of the state to be prepared to evacuate. State officials said eastern Virginia could be hit with flooding from both rain and storm surges and that winds could reach hurricane strength in Hampton Roads.
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