";s:4:"text";s:2843:" The hurricane was moving north at about 18 miles per hour, with winds gusting between 60 and 70 miles per hour across parts of New York City. The Mohawk River near Schenectady was expected to crest at a record 12 feet above flood level, promising what officials called a "500-year flood." The banks of the old Raritan are not visible in downtown New Brunswick, N.J., overflowing Sunday, Aug. 28, 2011, due to heavy rains from Hurricane Irene.
Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee caused widespread destruction across New York late last summer, marking one of the largest disasters in the state's history. A man stands in the middle of a deserted Broadway in Lower Manhattan, New York, early on August 28, 2011 as Hurricane Irene hits the city with rain and high winds. N ew Yorkers had anticipated the coming of Hurricane Irene with much dread and exaggerated anxiety. The Hurricane of 1938 and Hurricane Irene The Hurricane of 1938 killed 700 people By Gabe Pressman • Published August 25, 2011 • Updated on August 25, 2011 at 7:10 pm Irene Slams the Hudson Valley Hurricane Irene causes the worst upstate flooding in years By Michael Hill • Published August 28, 2011 • Updated on August 28, 2011 at 11:22 pm “The intensity of the storm is slowly weakening,” Mr. Conte said. "Hurricane Irene caused many rivers and creeks in upstate New York to crest at near record levels, leading to severe flooding in several communities. Weather Bureau downgraded Irene from a hurricane to a tropical storm shortly before it hit NYC. The total storm recovery cleanup cost is expected to exceed $1.6 billion and involve approximately 15,000 separate response and … Sometimes called "the drowned lands" (long before Irene), the fertile black dirt region is the remains of a great shallow lake formed by receding glaciers. New York is beginning mandatory evacuations for the first time in its history because of Hurricane Irene. Remnants of Hurricane Irene caused heavy flooding, as shown in this August 31 Landsat 5 image, in the hamlet of Pine Island in the town of Warwick (Orange County), New York. The yellow and red areas in these radar images show Irene's heaviest rainbands over the Catskills at 11:00 a.m. and over the Adirondacks and Green Mountains at 2:00 p.m. on August 28. Although Irene was not as dangerous as originally predicted, it still had the power to severely disrupt the everyday routine of millions of New York residents.