Thar She Blew: Hurricane Irene Leaves Millions In The Dark

A typical scene. A downed tree in coastal Massachusetts. Power might not be restored to southern New England until the end of the week, according to power company National Grid.


The East Coast was long overdue for a hurricane, and they got it.

The biggest Eastern hurricane of the decade, according to meteorologists from Atlanta to Boston, finally weakened early Sunday morning as it made land fall in southern New England after soaking New York. Power outages and transportation delays promise to make for a slow recovery to business as usual on Monday. A number of schools are already delaying the first day of classes, scheduled for Monday in Providence, Rhode Island’s capital city. New York city airports will resume operations later in the day, so Monday morning business travel will be delayed.

Heavy rain hit coastal Massachusetts first at 01:00 and then remained calm for two more hours before another downpour hit the south around 03:00. Strong winds arrived by 05:30, enough to knock out power before most people got out of bed Sunday morning.

Winds were coming in around 55 miles per hour in southern Massachusetts, with the heaviest winds along Horseneck Beack, Newport and Westerly, RI on the Conn border. By the time Hurricane Irene hit New England, it had already weakened to a tropical storm, which is what locals were expecting by Saturday. Still, 50mph sustained winds is enough to break tree limbs and cause coastal flooding, other than knocking out power.

Several people did not take their boats out off the water at the Westerly Yacht Club, which was flooded by early morning and being bombarded with heavy rain, high winds and even a tornado warning. The warning was lifted around 10:20. Local beach bars along Misquamicut Beach saw roof damage at the outset of the storm.

Over 147,000 people had lost power by 09:45 in Rhode Island and 40,000 in Massachusetts with electric power officials saying that number would triple before the end of the day. Working conditions for power companies was difficult due to high winds early in the day, according to National Grid. Later in the day, Massachusetts residents without power rose to 400,000 due to power line damage.

Hurricane barriers from Narragansett to Providence were all closed with no flooding reported in the city, but numerous trees were down throughout southern New England, blocking the roads. “It doesn’t take much for a tree full of wet leaves to go over in 40 mile an hour winds,” said RI meteorologist Steve Caccione.

Mike Lewis, direct of the RI Department of Transportation, told people to stay off the roads, especially off the high Newport and Jamestown bridges. The bridges were open, but covered in fog. Several large trees have been knocked down in Newport. Wind gusts were reported as high as 70 mph.

Dave Samuel, WPRO 630 AM radio meteorologist, said the storm will likely subside by early evening. The bulk of the storm is west of coastal New England. Sunny and dry weather is forecast for the next four days with temperatures in the high 70s, Samuel said.

The bulk of Irene’s rain and wind will be felt in western New England, far from the coasts and major cities, but enough to cause travel disruptions and make it that much longer before power is restored statewide in the region, National Grid spokesman said.

On Saturday in Newport, RI, surfers were out in full force as eight foot swells rolled in after noon. Police and fire officials monitored the coastline all day, and shortly after 18:00 police and fire officials ordered a mandatory evacuation of the seaside resort town by midnight.

In New York, water had started flowing into lower Manhattan by 09:30 from the East River and flowing towards Wall Street. Three million customers from North Carolina to Connecticut are without power, ABC News Radio reported.

The East Coast will be open for business on Monday, but not everyone will be back to work.

The storm is likely not to go down as one of the most vicious in the northeast and in New England in particular. However, it will take days for business to get back to normal due to transportation and airport shut downs since Saturday, and power outages across the area.

Further south, in Nags Head, North Carolina, Anne Compton of ABC News said Sunday on ABC affiliate WPRO that, “The evacuation took tremendous pressure off the first responders here. The roads are empty of tourists,” she said.