NYC Readies For Hurricane Irene By Evacuating "Most Vulnerable"

GOES-13 satellite image of Hurricane Irene moving through the Bahamas earlier this morning

After telling New Yorkers the city was preparing for the worst this morning, Mayor Bloomberg held another Hurricane Irene in the early evening and reassured everyone, "Whenever the City has faced a difficult, tough situation, New Yorkers have always shown courage, compassion, presence of mind, and have been innovative in dealing with whatever is thrown at them. And I have confidence that they will do that again." While the city will not make a decision about a Zone A evacuation (see what zone you're in with the map below) until Saturday at 8 a.m., Bloomberg has announced the evacuation of the "most vulnerable New Yorkers - hospital patients; those in nursing homes and homes for aged; and also New Yorkers who because of age or infirmity are homebound" in Zone A areas.

Zone A includes Brooklyn's Coney Island and Manhattan Beach, Far Rockaway and Broad Channel in Queens, South Beach, Midland Beach, and other low-lying areas on Staten Island, and Manhattan's Battery Park City. There are five hospitals in Zone A, which are reducing their patient caseloads and, in the case of Coney Island Hospital, sending patients to other hospitals. Bloomberg said, “We’re also notifying the other hospitals in these Zone A low-lying areas, as well as nursing homes and senior centers in these low-lying Zone A areas that they must - I repeat the word must - evacuate beginning tomorrow and complete the process by 8:00 PM tomorrow night, unless they get permission to stay in place based on the ability of the particular facility to keep operating during hurricane conditions. If any of these facilities need help moving patients, we’ll be able to provide it."

Bloomberg also said that shelters would be open at 4 p.m. and referred to the weekend's outdoor activities, outdoor activities planned in the city, "More than 300 outdoor activities - street fairs, block parties, and so forth - have been planned. These activities, unfortunately, will have to be curtailed throughout the entire city, not just in the Zone A areas as we want to make sure that streets are available for emergency vehicles and busses throughout the entire city that may be needed in evacuation plans. We are revoking - and I have just signed an Executive Order to do so - all permits for events to take place in the city on Sunday, and in low-lying Zone A areas on Saturday as well. If you are not in a Zone A low-lying area, you can have your activity continue on Saturday, but we have amended the permits that require you to stop serving the public by 2:00 PM so you can use the rest of the afternoon to clean up."

NASA says that Hurricane Irene's "diameter is now about one-third the length of the U.S. Atlantic coastline." While some measures suggest Irene is a Category 2 storm now, it's expected that it will regain strength to become a Category 3 storm when it hits North Carolina on Saturday afternoon. Here's video visualizing the storm with 115 MPH winds from today:

State of Emergencies were called for New York and New Jersey.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Jen Chung in News on August 25, 2011 9:53 PM

Comments [rss]

OASISnyc

Update: we've added the locations of NYC hurricane evacuation centers to the OASISnyc map. See blog with more info: wp.me/pBfcP-an

ohmygodshutup

With all due respect to the big ass storm about to fling taxis through our windows and submerge us in some seriously polluted stank ass water, I have a perverse desire to go watch people freaking out at the atlantic center target, that place is such a shit-show on a good day.

Peanut_Butter

I'd join you if I wasn't stuck at work instead of clearing my gutters...

Bernie_Geotz_Squirrel_Luv

They're gonna evacuate people who live in Battery Park City, that must be a first. Their apartment buildings are built on stilts and sand.

Bernie_Geotz_Squirrel_Luv

I see now, they're just evacuating the "most vulnerable" in those area. There is a assisted living facility in BPC, I'm sure they'll be fine unless the staff starts stealing their stuff again.

Mordicai

I seriously can't tell how much of this is hype & how much of this is reasonable. I hate the news cycle; at this point, the news is so much panic & dross I might as well skip it entirely.

Peanut_Butter

Tell that to the people in Middle Village and other parts of Queens and Brooklyn the last time trees got uprooted and created a mini warzone in their neighborhoods...

whatidsay

You may feel differently when you see trees skipping by your window. You don't have to believe the hype, but you should heed it or ignore it at your peril.

Mordicai

I was at point zero of the last tornado-- I'm not saying I'm stupid. I'm saying I can't trust major media outlets.

smalll

Likely to be a big nothing. I'm so old, I remember the last time this was supposed to happen. 1986, Hurricane Gloria. I was a kid up in Westchester. They cancelled school! So at home we spend a bunch of time watching Sue Simmons and the rest of the local media give us hour-by-hour coverage of our impending destruction.

I remember one simple graphic they had put together -- cartoon houses in a row, and then they told us, "once it hits Long Island, this will happen" and then they conjured up a cartoon wave that covered up every little Long Island house on the screen.

And I remember some reporter out in the field, trying as best as possible to pump up the drama in some Long Island cul-de-sac, which was difficult to do with all the kids (off school) riding around on their bikes and otherwise enjoying the day off -- so he told us, "we must be in the EYE OF THE STORM! That's why it's so non-rainy and non-scary here right now. Just you wait!"

Fear not, NY, and be proud: we live in a part of the world that never really faces mother nature at her worst -- an minor earthquake out of Virginia or other distant parts once every hundred years or so, a hurricane that devolves into a tropical storm by the time it gets here (the ocean is just too cold up here, the northern Atlantic is no Gulf of Mexico) -- oh, and also, no "fire season" -- I still can't get over that one. Why would anyone live in a place that has a "fire season?"

Amy Selmes

Firstly, Gloria was 1985. Secondly, Gloria was hardly 'nothing' where i was- close to the North Shore of Suffolk County on LI. We had a huge old tree crash on our house, and the electricity was out for 5 days. Certainly not the end of the world, but a serious storm w/ plenty of dangers.

Stevennnn

Bit of cocky aren't you? This is the problem with peoples minds in the northeast, they think we're invisible to extreme weather. No doubt many times the mets have screwed up prediciting the weather, but there are many times when they were right. Don't you remember record snowstorms? The tornado in Queens, Bridgeport, Brooklyn?