ISRAELIS BEWARE-IRENE IN NEW YORK TODAY-ISRAEL WOULD BE A LOT SAFER AS GODS PROTECTION WOULD PREVAIL

STORMS HURRICANES-TORNADOES

LUKE 21:25-26
25 And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity;(MASS CONFUSION) the sea and the waves roaring;(FIERCE WINDS)
26 Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.

THE FIRST JUDGEMENT OF THE EARTH STARTED WITH WATER-IT ONLY MAKES SENSE THE LAST GENERATION WILL BE HAVING FLOODING
GENESIS 7:6-12
6 And Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters was upon the earth.
7 And Noah went in, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons’ wives with him, into the ark, because of the waters of the flood.
8 Of clean beasts, and of beasts that are not clean, and of fowls, and of every thing that creepeth upon the earth,
9 There went in two and two unto Noah into the ark, the male and the female, as God had commanded Noah.
10 And it came to pass after seven days, that the waters of the flood were upon the earth.
11 In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.
12 And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights.
GOD PROMISED BY A RAINBOW-THE EARTH WOULD NEVER BE DESTROYED TOTALLY WITH A FLOOD AGAIN.BUT FLOODIING IS A SIGN OF JUDGEMENT.

POWER OUTAGE

REVELATION 16:10-11
10 And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast; and his kingdom was full of darkness; and they gnawed their tongues for pain,
11 And blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and repented not of their deeds.

IN NEW YORK THERE WAS SOME FLOODING-TREES DOWN,BUT OVER ALL GOD PROTECTED HIS ISRAELIS IN NEW YORK FROM BIG TIME DESTRUCTION.ONCE AGAIN KING JESUS PROTECTS HIS PEOPLE(ISRAEL)AND DISINTIGRATEES THE HURRICANE TO A PURRING KITTEN OVER NEW YORK.PRAISE KING JESUS FOR PROTECTING ISRAELIS FROM HURRICANE IRENE.

State-by-state look at Irene dangers, damage
AP By The Associated Press – 7:50PM SUN AUG 28,11

Irene, the hurricane that weakened to a tropical storm, thrashed the East Coast, knocking out power to millions of homes and businesses, destroying piers and killing at least 21 people. Here's a state-by-state glance on how it's affected states along the Eastern seaboard:

CONNECTICUT
__ Irene made landfall Sunday afternoon on the state's shoreline with winds of 60 mph.
__ Power cut to much of Bridgeport, the state's largest city, because of flooding concerns at substations. Mayor imposes 8 p.m. Sunday curfew as crews deal with the problem.
__ Officials warned of possible flooding as a storm surge of 4 to 8 feet coincided with an unusually high tide in Long Island Sound.
__ Thousands evacuated along the shoreline, with more than 30 municipalities directing people to leave their homes.
__ State of emergency declared. National Guard mobilized.
__ Last hurricane to hit was Bob in 1991.

DELAWARE

__ About 31,000 homes and businesses without power as of late Sunday afternoon.
__ Apparent tornado damages 15 structures near Lewes. Another touched down in Wicomico County. No injuries reported.
__ Residents of a small coastal community were left isolated from their homes after an access road through Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge in southern Delaware was washed out.
__ Governor says worst of Irene passed Sunday; he went on a helicopter tour of affected areas.
__ Last hurricane to hit was Floyd in 1999; Tropical Storm Isabel struck in 2003.

FLORIDA

__ Hurricane kicks up heavy waves killing a 55-year-old surfer when he is tossed off his board; a New Jersey tourist, also 55, dies in rough surf.

MAINE

__ Heavy rains reached state Sunday.
__ More than 160,000 customers without power by Sunday afternoon.
__ Flash flood warnings in effect Sunday for northern and western Maine. Offshore, seas were expected to build to about 20 feet.
__ Strong winds with gusts up to 50 mph expected through the night and into early Monday.
__ Governor had declared an emergency prior to the storm. No evacuations were planned. Lobstermen began moving their fishing gear farther offshore to avoid damage.

MARYLAND

__ At least 645,000 homes and businesses without power late Sunday afternoon.
__ State police report an apparent tornado touchdown on the lower Eastern Shore; no injuries.
__ National Weather Service warns of flooding in parts of southern and central Maryland and the Eastern Shore.
__ Up to 12 inches of rain fell on Ocean City.
__Ocean City, following its first evacuation order since 1985, said Sunday morning that residents and tourists could return.
__ Maryland Transit Administration restored service Sunday after suspending it.
__Bay Bridge and other bridges reopened Sunday after being shut down at height of storm.
__ Last hurricane to hit was Floyd in 1999; state was pounded by Tropical Storm Isabel in 2003.
__In Queen Anne's County, an 85-year-old woman was killed when a tree fell into a chimney, which crashed into the sunroom where she was sitting.

MASSACHUSETTS

__ The governor deployed 500 National Guard troops, saying an additional 2,000 troops would be activated Saturday.
__ Mandatory evacuations were not ordered.
__ Red Cross positioned emergency response vehicles, mobilized disaster workers.
__ Irene reaches southern New England on Sunday.
__ More than 500,000 power customers lose service.
__ Public transportation in Boston shut down Sunday.
__ Last hurricane to hit was Bob in 1991.

NEW HAMPSHIRE

__ Drenching rain and high winds reach state Sunday afternoon.
__ More than 100,000 homes and businesses lose power.
__ No evacuations planned.
__ Governor urged people to stay off the roads and beaches.
__ The Red Cross planned to open four shelters.
__ Organizers of the annual Hampton Beach Talent Competition condensed the three-night schedule to two, telling competitors "it's one song for all the marbles."

NEW JERSEY

__ Irene makes landfall along the New Jersey coast near Little Egg Inlet with 75 mph winds, the first hurricane to make landfall in the state in more than a century.
__ Mandatory evacuations ordered for nearly 1 million visitors and residents.
__ More than 920,000 homes and businesses lose power.
__ 20-year-old woman who had called police to ask for help getting out of her flooded car in Salem County was found dead in the vehicle eight hours later.
__ Governor says more than 15,000 people in shelters.
__ New Jersey Transit trains and buses shut down.
__ Atlantic City casinos shut down for only the third time since gambling was legalized 33 years ago.

NEW YORK

__ Irene makes landfall Sunday near Coney Island.
__ Some streets flooded in Manhattan; two major thoroughfares closed.
__ More than 905,000 homes and businesses statewide lose power, about half on Long Island.
__ Southbound lanes of the New York State Thruway closed for 137 miles from Albany to West Nyack. Northbound lanes shut for 90 miles from Westchester County to Saugerties.
__ Bungalows float down streets in Queens. Rescuers search for anyone inside.
__ New York's major airports closed Sunday. Three to reopen for most flights Monday morning.
__ Before the storm, mandatory evacuations ordered for New York City residents in low-lying coastal areas that are home to 370,000. Order lifted at 3 p.m. Sunday afternoon.
__ New York City's public transit system, the nation's biggest, was shut down until at least Monday. The five main New York-area airports also closed. As of 2:30 Sunday, there was no timetable for restarting subways or regional rail systems.

NORTH CAROLINA

__ Hurricane makes landfall Saturday morning near Cape Lookout. Highest wind gust of 115 mph recorded at Cedar Island ferry terminal. Highest rainfall amount is 15.74 inches in Bayboro.
__ More than 400,000 remain without electricity early Sunday evening, down from 560,000.
__Local officials reported a 13-foot surge from Pamlico Sound into Beaufort County.
__ The Neuse River poured over its banks and into the city of New Bern. Several dozen people were rescued from homes as up to 4 feet of water rushed in.
__Ferries carry supplies to Hatteras Island after the storm caused breaches in the road connecting it to the mainland
__ More than 60 shelters were opened open in 26 counties.
__ Nearly 1900 prisoners evacuated from three coastal prisons.
__ Last hurricane to hit was Isabel in 2003.

PENNSYLVANIA

__ Flooding in several counties in central and eastern portions of the state.
__ Nearly 700,000 lost power across the state.
__ Governor declared state of emergency.
__ A half-foot of rain fell in Philadelphia. A state of emergency declared by the mayor on Saturday — the first since one triggered by racial tensions in 1986 — was lifted Sunday. The rainfall came on top of an already single-month record of more than 13 inches.
__ Mass transit serving Philadelphia resumed bus, trolley and subway service; regional trains set to resume Monday.
__ Philadelphia International Airport reopened Sunday afternoon but no departures scheduled.
__ Last hurricane to hit was Floyd in 1999.

RHODE ISLAND

__ Irene made landfall Sunday as a tropical storm.
__ More than 270,000 customers lost power.
__ Rhode Island Emergency Management Agency said state weathered the morning high tide without widespread coastal flooding. But officials were keeping a close eye on water levels heading into the high tide expected at about 8 p.m. Sunday.
__ Federal and state emergencies declared.
__ Mandatory evacuations ordered for low-lying communities including Bristol, Charlestown, Narragansett, South Kingstown, and Westerly. Other communities have voluntary evacuation orders.
__ Residents warned to expect prolonged power outages and property damage.
__ 300 National Guard troops on standby.
__ Last hurricane to hit was Bob in 1991, which made landfall twice.

SOUTH CAROLINA

__ Beach erosion reported at high tide Friday evening on Edisto Island and Folly Beach.
__ About 5,000 customers lost power from storms in Irene's outer bands.
__ No mandatory evacuations ordered.
__ Irene moved away from the state Saturday morning.
__ Last hurricane to hit was Charley in 2004.

VERMONT

__ Heavy rains began falling early Sunday, with flash flooding and evacuations ongoing in southern Vermont by late morning.
__ Flooding expected to occur in northern Vermont as the storm moves in that direction during the day. Rivers in northern Vermont should crest late Sunday night or early Monday.
__ The Red Cross opened shelters, with one in Brattleboro housing about 50 people by midday Sunday.
__ About 18,000 power outages reported by midday Sunday.

VIRGINIA

__ Nearly 800,000 without power early Sunday evening, down from a peak of about 1 million.
__ Officials say the scope of the damage may not be known for days because some roads could remain impassible and rivers have yet to crest.
__ Suffolk received 11 inches of rain and other localities east of Interstate 95 received about 5-10 inches.
__ Mandatory evacuations were ordered for at least 11 communities, including the Sandbridge section of Virginia Beach, a barrier island dotted with rentals, Accomack on the Eastern Shore, and low-lying areas of Norfolk, Hampton and Portsmouth.
__ The Navy ordered the Second Fleet out to sea to escape the storm.
__ Apparent tornado heavily damaged five homes in the Sandbridge area.
__ Last hurricane to hit the state was Isabel in 2003.

WASHINGTON, D.C.
__ About 30,000 homes and businesses without power.
__ About 200 trees were down around the city.
__ Washington National Cathedral officials say Hurricane Irene has not worsened any damage from last week's earthquake that caused significant damage at the church.
__ Approach of hurricane forced postponement of Sunday's dedication of Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial.
__ Public transit in nation's capital never shut down.
__ Last hurricane to hit was Hazel in 1954.

Hurricane Irene by the Numbers
ContributorNetwork William Browning – AUG 28,11-SUN 7:30PM

Hurricane Irene left a path of flooding and destruction from the coast of North Carolina and into New York City. The remnants of the storm will very quickly move north into Maine and eventually be swept out into the extreme northern Atlantic Ocean.Hurricane Irene has left behind some huge numbers and statistics to ponder.
4.5 million: The estimated number of residents without power due to the storm. ABC News reports customers from North Carolina to Maine, residents along the coast will deal with flooding and power problems. As many as a quarter of the power outages were in New Jersey and New York combined. Maine had about 85,000 customers lose power even after Hurricane Irene weakened.18: The number of deaths attributed to the storm so far. CNN reports North Carolina alone had six fatalities. Virginia saw four deaths total as coastal areas were hit by heavy rain and high winds.

115: The maximum sustained winds that were associated with Hurricane Irene, in miles per hour. As the storm approached North Carolina Aug. 26, winds had lessened to 100 mph as Irene made landfall along the coast.3 billion: The amount of money, in dollars, predicted to cost insurers of the storm. Bloomberg reports original estimates were $14 billion a few days before Hurricane Irene hit. Now that the winds have died down and flooding wasn't nearly as big of a problem, the damage estimates were lowered. The actual amount of damage won't be known for months.65: The wind speeds, in miles per hour, as Tropical Storm Irene pounded Coney Island, N.Y. The eye of the storm made a direct hit on New York City.10,300: The approximate number of flights canceled to and from New York City because of Irene. Bloomberg reports mass transit sites were shut down, airports were closed and even the George Washington Bridge was made inoperative by the approaching wind and rain.370,000: The number of residents evacuated from low-lying areas in New York City. The New York Times reports the mandatory evacuation order affected those residents living closest to the water who would be affected by the storm surge. When flooding was reported,

9,600: The estimated number of New York City residents who stayed in approximated 90 shelters set up by the city. Many of these people were part of the mandatory evacuation zone. Less than 24 hours later, the evacuation order was lifted. New York City officials say they made exactly the right call by evacuating the hardest-hit areas.

NYC mayor: Evacuees can soon return home AP By COLLEEN LONG - Associated Press,DAVID B. CARUSO - Associated Press | AP – AUG 28,11 SUN - 2:30PM

NEW YORK (AP) — The nearly 400,000 New Yorkers who had been ordered to evacuate low-lying neighborhoods because of Hurricane Irene were told they could go home Sunday afternoon, but officials said the city's transit system probably won't be up and running again by the start of the work week.That could mean a rough commute for millions of New Yorkers come Monday morning.Overall, the city made it through the storm fairly well, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said in announcing he would lift the evacuation order covering 370,000 people by 3 p.m.He said the storm inflicted significant damage, with retaining walls collapsing in some places and serious flooding across all the five boroughs.But whether we dodged a bullet or you look at it and said, God smiled on us,the bottom line is, I'm happy to report, there do not appear to be any deaths attributable to the storm,the mayor said. He added: All in all, we are in pretty good shape because of the extensive steps we took to prepare.
Among those steps was the shutting down of city subways, commuter rails and buses.
Jay Walder, chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, said damage to the various parts of the system would have to assessed before service could be restored.Walder said the shutdown — the first time the nation's biggest transit system suspended all service because of a natural disaster — was the right move, noting that some train yards were under water.I think it's fair to say you're going to have a tough commute in the morning,Bloomberg said. Tough commute tomorrow, but we have tough commutes all the time.Around the city, firefighters rescued dozens of people from flooded homes on Staten Island, residents removed garbage and debris from clogged sewer gates, and once-quiet roads became busier soon after a weakened Irene came ashore at Brooklyn's Coney Island around 9 a.m. as a powerful tropical storm.In Queens, bungalows floated down the street and emergency crews were checking to make sure no one was inside. There was heavy flooding in other parts of the city, but Manhattan was mostly spared.

Coney Island boardwalk landmarks like the red parachute drop tower, the Cyclone roller coaster, and Dino's Wonder Wheel appeared intact. Residents there pitched in to dislodge debris from the sewer gates.It's working, said Daniels Stevens, as a small whirlpool appeared where the water was draining out. When we started, the water was almost up over the hubcaps on that parked car.Irene weakened after landfall over the North Carolina coast Saturday, but it was still a huge storm with sustained winds of up to 65 mph as it hit the city. Coinciding with a tide that was higher than normal, water levels rose, but not as high as anticipated. They were quickly receding.In Manhattan, some streets were flooded on the east and west side of the island, closing major thoroughfares such as the Henry Hudson Parkway and the FDR Drive. The Tappan Zee Bridge was closed because of flooding on the highway leading up to it.Twelve-year-old Alex Cuglewski said he set his alarm for 3 a.m. so he could get up and watch Irene from his family's eight-floor oceanfront apartment in a stretch of Rockaway Beach where everyone was supposed to evacuate.It wasn't that bad. People evacuated for no reason,he said. Waves went up to the boardwalk but did not spill into his street.Water from New York Harbor washed onto the sidewalk at Battery Park along the tip of the island. About a foot of water lapped over the wall of the marina in front of the New York Mercantile Exchange in lower Manhattan. A low-lying section of the promenade hugging Battery Park was also submerged, and much of the operational equipment for the ferries out to Staten and Ellis Island was damaged. It could take a day to get it up and running.But the Sept. 11 Memorial and Museum sent a Twitter message that read: None of the memorial trees were lost.About 400 trees have been planted ahead of the 10th anniversary next week. And the city's biggest utility said it was cautiously optimistic that it would not have to cut off power to Wall Street and 17,000 people.Slowly cabs started appearing downtown and residents returned despite the evacuation order.

It was a fun little adventure. I tried not to think about the hype and take things as they came,said Zander Lassen, 37, who spent the night at a boathouse watching sailboats.Grace Tate, a Manhattan paralegal, found her herself stranded in the World Financial Center lobby with a front-row seat to the hurricane.She had been determined to make it downtown for Sunday services at Trinity Church, only to learn they had been canceled. Security and maintenance men who had spent the night in the building were her only company.First the earthquake and now this, she said as heavy rain pounded empty streets outside.Bloomberg was right to err on the side of overkill,Tate said of the mayor's insistent warnings to evacuate. I think we need to be more respectful of nature.Other neighborhoods weren't as lucky. Coastal areas of Staten Island and parts of Queens had the most damage from flooding. Power was out to about 110,000 customers around the city and hundreds of thousands in Long Island.
All subway, bus and commuter rail service was suspended Saturday because of the danger of flooding and downed trees.Associated Press writers Beth Fouhy, Samantha Gross, Jennifer Peltz, Verena Dobnik, Tom Hays, and Deepti Hajela in New York contributed to this report.

NYC appears to escape the worst as Irene roars in AP By MITCH WEISS - Associated Press,SAMANTHA GROSS - Associated Press | AP – AUG 28,11 - 1:15PM

NEW YORK (AP) — Tropical Storm Irene unleashed furious wind and rain on New York on Sunday and sent seawater surging into the Manhattan streets. But the city appeared to escape the worst fears of urban disaster — vast power outages, hurricane-shattered skyscraper windows and severe flooding.A foot of water rushed over the wall of a marina in front of the New York Mercantile Exchange, where gold and oil are traded, and floodwater lapped at the wheel wells of yellow cabs. As the storm marched into New England, though, authorities in its wake cautiously expressed relief.All in all, we are in pretty good shape, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said. He lifted the city's evacuation orders for 370,000 people effective later Sunday afternoon. There was no immediate indication when New York might start its subways again.New York City's biggest power company, Consolidated Edison, said it was optimistic it would not have to cut electricity to save its equipment. The Sept. 11 museum, a centerpiece of the rebuilding of the World Trade Center site, said on Twitter that none of its memorial trees were lost.And Irene made landfall as a tropical storm with 65 mph winds, not the 100-mph hurricane that had churned up the East Coast and dumped a foot of water or more on less populated areas in the South.

Just another storm,said Scott Beller, who was at a Lowe's store in the Long Island hamlet of Centereach, looking for a generator because his power was out.Irene weakened to winds of 60 mph, well below the 74 mph dividing line between a hurricane and tropical storm. The system was still massive and powerful, forming a figure six that covered the Northeast. It was moving twice as fast as the day before.The storm killed at least 14 people and left 4 million homes and businesses without power. It unloaded more than a foot of water on North Carolina and spun off tornadoes in Virginia, Maryland and Delaware.And even after the storm passes in the Northeast, the danger will persist. Rivers could crest after the skies the clear, and the ground in most of the region is saturated from a summer of persistent rain. In Rhode Island, thick with bays, inlets and coastline, authorities were worried about coastal flooding at Sunday evening's high tide.But from North Carolina to New Jersey, the storm appeared to have fallen well short of the doomsday predictions. Across the Eastern Seaboard, at least 2.3 million people were given orders to evacuate, though it was not clear how many obeyed them.Max Mayfield, former director of the National Hurricane Center, said the storm wasn't just a lot of hype with little fury. He praised authorities, from meteorologists to emergency managers at all levels, for taking the threat seriously.They knew they had to get people out early,Mayfield said.I think absolutely lives were saved.In Virginia Beach, the city posted on Twitter late Saturday that initial reports were promising, with the resort area suffering minimal damage. Ocean City, Md., Mayor Rick Meehan posted wind readings and reported: Scattered power outages. No reports of major damage! Charlie Koetzle was up at 4 a.m. on Ocean City's boardwalk. Asked about damage, he mentioned a sign that blew down.The beach is still here, and there is lots of it, he said.I don't think it was as bad as they said it was going to be.Under its first hurricane warning in a quarter-century, the nation's largest city had taken extensive precautions. There were sandbags on Wall Street, tarps over subway grates and plywood on storefront windows. The subway stopped rolling. Broadway and baseball were canceled.

John F. Kennedy International Airport recorded a tropical storm-force wind gust of 58 mph. Kennedy, where on a normal day tens of thousands of passengers would be arriving from points around the world, was quiet. So were LaGuardia and Newark airports. So was Grand Central Terminal, where the great hall was cleared out entirely. Part of the Holland Tunnel was closed.And 370,000 people in the city had been ordered to move to safer ground, although they appeared in great numbers to have stayed put. A storm surge of at least 3 1/2 feet was recorded in New York Harbor, and water pressed into Manhattan from three sides — the harbor, the Hudson River and the East River.You could see newspaper stands floating down the street, said Scott Baxter, a hotel doorman in the SoHo neighborhood.New York firefighters made dozens of water rescues, including three babies, and said they were searching bungalows that had floated down the street in parts of Queens. The wind and rain were expected to diminish by afternoon.The National Hurricane Center said the center of the huge storm reached land near Little Egg Inlet, N.J., at 5:35 a.m. The eye previously reached land Saturday in North Carolina before returning to the Atlantic, tracing the East Coast shoreline.Irene caused flooding from North Carolina to Delaware, both from the 7-foot waves it pushed into the coast and from heavy rain. Eastern North Carolina got 10 to 14 inches of rain. Virginia's Hampton Roads area was drenched with at least 9 inches, 16 in some spots.More than 1 million homes and businesses lost power in Virginia alone. Emergency crews around the region prepared to head out at daybreak to assess the damage, though with some roads impassable and rivers still rising, it could take days.Some held out optimism that their communities had suffered less damage than they had feared.In North Carolina, where at least five people were killed and TV footage showed downed trees and power lines, Gov. Beverly Perdue said some areas were unreachable.Folks are cut off in parts of North Carolina, and obviously we're not going to get anybody to do an assessment until it's safe,she said.A falling tree also killed one person in Maryland. A surfer and another beachgoer in Florida were killed in heavy waves caused by the storm.

A nuclear reactor at Maryland's Calvert Cliffs went offline automatically when a large piece of aluminum siding blew off and hit the facility's main transformer late Saturday night. An unusual event was declared, the lowest of four emergency classifications by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, but Constellation Energy Nuclear Group spokesman Mark Sullivan said the facility and all employees were safe.
Near Callway, Md., about 30 families were warned that a dam could spill over, causing significant flooding, and that they should either leave their homes or stay upstairs. St. Mary's County spokeswoman Sue Sabo said the dam was not in danger of breaching.Irene raked the Caribbean last week and made its first landfall Saturday near Cape Lookout, N.C., at the southern end of the Outer Banks.Of the 15 deaths, at least 10 were caused by falling trees or car crashes into trees. The victims included five in North Carolina, four in Virginia, two in rough surf in Florida, and one each in Connecticut, Maryland, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.Irene was the first hurricane to make landfall in the continental United States since 2008, and came almost six years to the day after Katrina ravaged New Orleans on Aug. 29, 2005. Experts said that probably no other hurricane in American history had threatened as many people.Airlines said 9,000 flights were canceled, including 3,000 on Saturday. The number of passengers affected could easily be millions because so many flights make connections on the East Coast.The storm arrived in Washington just days after an earthquake damaged some of the capital's most famous structures, including the Washington Monument. Irene could test Washington's ability to protect its national treasures and its poor.Near the epicenter of the quake, in Mineral, Va., trees were down, but the power stayed on.I was telling people, 'All I can say is we all better go to church on Sunday,Mayor Pam Harlowe said.But unfortunately a bunch of them are closed.At the East Coast cleans up, it can't afford to get too comfortable. Off the coast of Africa is a batch of clouds that computer models say will probably threaten the East Coast 10 days from now, Mayfield said. The hurricane center gave it a 40 percent chance of becoming a named storm over the next two days.Folks on the East Coast are going to get very nervous again,Mayfield said.Weiss reported from Nags Head, N.C. Associated Press writers Christine Armario in Miami; Jessica Gresko in Ocean City, Md.; Brock Vergakis in Virginia Beach, Va.; Marc Levy in Chester, Pa.; Seth Borenstein in Washington; and Samantha Bomkamp, Verena Dobnik, Jonathan Fahey, Beth Fouhy, Tom Hays, Colleen Long and Larry Neumeister in New York contributed to this report.

Flooding in Manhattan streets as Irene arrives AP By MITCH WEISS - Associated Press,SAMANTHA GROSS - Associated Press | AP – AUG 28,11 10:30AM

NEW YORK (AP) — Seawater surged into the streets of Manhattan on Sunday as Tropical Storm Irene slammed into New York, downgraded from a hurricane but still unleashing furious wind and rain. The flooding threatened Wall Street and the heart of the global financial network.Salty water from New York Harbor submerged parts of a promenade at the base of the island. A foot of water rushed over the wall of a marina in front of the New York Mercantile Exchange, where gold and oil are traded.
You could see newspaper stands floating down the street, said Scott Baxter, a hotel doorman in the SoHo neighborhood.As the center of the storm passed over Central Park at midmorning, floodwater reached the wheel wells of some stranded cars in Manhattan, and more streamed into the streets of Queens.Still, the storm was far from the worst fears. The Sept. 11 museum, a centerpiece of the rebuilding of the World Trade Center site, said on Twitter that none of its memorial trees were lost.

Irene weakened to winds of 65 mph, below the 74 mph dividing line between a hurricane and tropical storm. The system was still massive and powerful, forming a figure six that covered the Northeast. It was moving twice as fast as the day before.
As a hurricane, Irene had already killed 11 people and left 4 million homes and businesses without power. It unloaded more than a foot of water on North Carolina and spun off tornadoes in Virginia, Maryland and Delaware.Even after the storm passes in the Northeast, the danger will persist. Rivers could crest after the skies the clear, and the ground in most of the region is saturated from a summer of persistent rain.In the nation's largest city Sunday, there were sandbags on Wall Street, tarps over subway grates and plywood on storefront windows. The subway stopped rolling. Broadway and baseball were canceled.Consolidated Edison, the largest utility, said it was optimistic it would not have to cut power to 17,000 people in Manhattan, a step it had considered to protect its equipment and make repairs easier.And 370,000 people in the city had been ordered to move to safer ground, although they appeared in great numbers to have stayed put.It's nasty out there and wet, Cindy Darcy said from a 36-floor building facing the harbor.We unplugged the drains, and we fastened anything loose or removed it.She was up early making bagels for the nine workers and 24 inhabitants who stayed in the building, which is in the evacuation zone.John F. Kennedy International Airport recorded a tropical storm-force wind gust of 58 mph. Kennedy, where on a normal day tens of thousands of passengers would be arriving from points around the world, was quiet. So were LaGuardia and Newark airports. So was Grand Central Terminal, where the great hall was cleared out entirely. One tube of the Holland Tunnel between New York and New Jersey was closed because of flooding.The time for evacuation is over, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Saturday.Everyone should now go inside and stay inside.As the storm's outer bands reached New York on Saturday night, two kayakers capsized and had to be rescued off Staten Island. They received summonses and a dressing down from Bloomberg, who said at a press conference that they had recklessly put rescuers' lives at risk.The National Hurricane Center said the center of the huge storm reached land near Little Egg Inlet, N.J., at 5:35 a.m. The eye previously reached land Saturday in North Carolina before returning to the Atlantic, tracing the East Coast shoreline.

In New York, a storm surge of at least 3 1/2 feet was recorded, and forecasters said it could reach 8 feet. Wind and rain were expected to diminish by afternoon. The flooding in lower Manhattan was dangerously close to Wall Street, and while the New York Stock Exchange can run on generator power, it was unclear how many traders would show up for work Monday.Throughout the East Coast storm zone, the total extent of damage was unclear, but officials and in parts of the storm zone were relieved to find their communities with relatively minor problems. Forecasters said the storm remained capable of causing ruinous flooding with a combination of storm surge, high tides and 6 to 12 inches of rain.Everything is still in effect, National Hurricane Center spokesman Dennis Feltgen said. The last thing people should do is go outside. They need to get inside and stay in a safe place until this thing is over.Irene caused flooding from North Carolina to Delaware, both from the 7-foot waves it pushed into the coast and from heavy rain. Eastern North Carolina got 10 to 14 inches of rain. Virginia's Hampton Roads area was drenched with at least 9 inches, 16 in some spots.More than 1 million homes and businesses lost power in Virginia alone, where three people were killed by falling trees and about 100 roads were closed. Emergency crews around the region prepared to head out at daybreak to assess the damage, though with some roads impassable and rivers still rising, it could take days.Some held out optimism that their communities had suffered less damage than they had feared.I think it's a little strong to say we dodged a bullet. However, it certainly could have turned out worse for the Hampton Roads area, said National Weather Service meteorologist Mike Montefusco.In Virginia Beach, the city posted on Twitter late Saturday that initial reports were promising, with the resort area suffering minimal damage. Ocean City, Md., Mayor Rick Meehan posted wind readings and reported: Scattered power outages. No reports of major damage!

Charlie Koetzle was up at 4 a.m. on Ocean City's boardwalk. Asked about damage, he mentioned a sign that blew down.The beach is still here, and there is lots of it, he said.I don't think it was as bad as they said it was going to be.In North Carolina, where at least two people were killed, Gov. Beverly Perdue said Irene inflicted significant damage along the North Carolina coast and some areas were unreachable.
Folks are cut off in parts of North Carolina, and obviously we're not going to get anybody to do an assessment until it's safe, she said.Television coverage showed evidence of damage across eastern North Carolina with downed trees and toppled power lines.A falling tree also killed one person in Maryland. A surfer and another beachgoer in Florida were killed in heavy waves caused by the storm.The storm arrived in Washington just days after an earthquake damaged some of the capital's most famous structures, including the Washington Monument. Irene could test Washington's ability to protect its national treasures and its poor.Near the epicenter of the quake, in Mineral, Va., trees were down, but the power stayed on.I was telling people, All I can say is we all better go to church on Sunday,Mayor Pam Harlowe said. But unfortunately a bunch of them are closed.A nuclear reactor at Maryland's Calvert Cliffs went offline automatically when a large piece of aluminum siding blew off and hit the facility's main transformer late Saturday night. An unusual event was declared, the lowest of four emergency classifications by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, but Constellation Energy Nuclear Group spokesman Mark Sullivan said the facility and all employees were safe.Near Callway, Md., about 30 families were warned that a dam could spill over, causing significant flooding, and that they should either leave their homes or stay upstairs. St. Mary's County spokeswoman Sue Sabo said the dam was not in danger of breaching.

Irene raked the Caribbean last week and made its first landfall Saturday near Cape Lookout, N.C., at the southern end of the Outer Banks. Across the Eastern Seaboard, at least 2.3 million people were under orders to move to somewhere safer.Annette Burton, 72, was asked to leave her Chester, Pa., neighborhood because of danger of rising water from a nearby creek. She said she planned to remain in the row house along with her daughter and adult grandson. She kept an eye on the park across the street, which floods during heavy rains.I'm not a fool. If it starts coming up from the park, I'm leaving,she said. It's the wind I'm more concerned about than anything.
Irene was the first hurricane to make landfall in the continental United States since 2008, and came almost six years to the day after Katrina ravaged New Orleans on Aug. 29, 2005. Experts said that probably no other hurricane in American history had threatened as many people.Airlines said 9,000 flights were canceled, including 3,000 on Saturday. The number of passengers affected could easily be millions because so many flights make connections on the East Coast.Mitch Weiss reported from Nags Head, N.C. Associated Press writers contributing to this report were Tim Reynolds and Christine Armario in Miami; Bruce Shipkowski in Surf City, N.J.; Geoff Mulvihill in Trenton, N.J.; Wayne Parry in Atlantic City, N.J.; Eric Tucker in Washington; Martha Waggoner and Gary D. Robertson in Raleigh, N.C.; Jessica Gresko in Ocean City, Md.; Mitch Weiss in Nags Head, N.C.; Alex Dominguez in Baltimore; Dena Potter in Richmond, Va.; Brock Vergakis in Virginia Beach, Va.; Samantha Bomkamp and Jonathan Fahey in New York; Seth Borenstein in Washington; and Allen G. Breed in Mineral, Va.

After Irene: Little damage seen in many places AP By ROBERT RAY - Associated Press,TOM FOREMAN Jr. - Associated Press | AP – AUG 28,11 10:00AM

KILL DEVIL HILLS, N.C. (AP) — From North Carolina to Pennsylvania, Hurricane Irene appeared to have fallen short of the doomsday predictions. But with rivers still rising, and roads impassable because of high water and fallen trees, it could be days before the full extent of the damage is known.More than 4.5 million homes and businesses along the East Coast lost power, and at least nine deaths were blamed on the storm. But as day broke Sunday, light damage was reported in many places, with little more than downed trees and power lines.I think it's a little strong to say we dodged a bullet. However, it certainly could have turned out worse for the Hampton Roads area in Virginia, said National Weather Service meteorologist Mike Montefusco.

At the same time, officials warned of the possibility of severe flooding over the next few days as runoff from the storm makes its way into creeks and rivers. In some parts of the Northeast, the ground was soggy even before the storm because of an extremely rainy August.Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett said: The rivers may not crest until Tuesday or Wednesday. This isn't just a 24-hour event.Irene's storm surge and heavy rain of six inches to a foot in many places triggered flooding along much of the East Coast. The storm was still pummeling the Northeast on Sunday morning, dropping below hurricane strength but still dangerous with 65 mph winds and heavy downpours.Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell had initially warned that Irene could be a catastrophic monster with record storm surges of up to 8 feet.But in Virginia Beach, the city posted on Twitter late Saturday that initial reports were promising, with the resort area suffering minimal damage. And in Ocean City, Md., Mayor Rick Meehan reported: Scattered power outages. No reports of major damage!In Lusby, Md., Constellation Energy Nuclear Group said one of two nuclear reactors at Calvert Cliffs went off-line automatically because of Irene's winds. Constellation said the plant was safe.North Carolina Gov. Beverly Perdue said Irene inflicted significant damage along her state's coast, but that the full extent was unclear because some areas were unreachable because of high water or downed power lines.Perdue planned an aerial tour Sunday of the hardest-hit counties after TV coverage showed downed trees, toppled utility poles and power lines and mangled awnings.Officials in North Carolina's Dare County said they were advised there was extensive flooding that needed to be checked out.Elsewhere, authorities suggested Irene didn't create the kind of havoc that had been anticipated.

We were prepared for a lot worse, but we got lucky on this one, said Bruce Shell, New Hanover County, N.C., manager.He said many of the 70,000 homes that lost power Saturday were back online in the evening and a wastewater spill at Wrightsville Beach appeared to be minor.Pinehurst dentist Harwell Palmer said his home in Ocean Isle Beach, N.C., lost a few pieces of siding and there was some street flooding, but a pier that took a pounding from the waves was still standing. The storm did gobble up some of the sand.The main concern we will have going forward is the loss of beach, he said.The question still facing the region was whether Irene's effects over the next few days would match the mess left behind by such storms as Floyd and Isabel.In 1999, Floyd dropped at least 15 inches of rain on eastern North Carolina. The flooding was the most damaging in the state's history, topping $3 billion in North Carolina. Four years later, Isabel brought hurricane conditions to eastern North Carolina and southeast Virginia, causing about $1 billion in damage.In Ocean City, Md., Charlie Koetzle stayed throughout the storm. He was up at 4 a.m., walking on the city's boardwalk, and said by phone that he saw at least one sign that had been blown down but that the pier was still intact.The beach is still here, and there is lots of it,he said.Associated Press writers Jessica Gresko in Ocean City, Md., Randall Chase in Georgetown, Del., and Dena Potter in Richmond, Va., contributed to this report. Foreman reported from Raleigh, N.C.

4M without power as Hurricane Irene heads north
AP By CHRIS KAHN - AP Energy Writer | AP – 9AM AUG 28,11

More than 4 million homes and businesses were without power Sunday morning as Hurricane Irene continued to roar up the East Coast and took aim at the New York City area and New England.Winds of up to 115 miles per hour whipped across the Eastern Seaboard, ripping power lines from poles and snapping trees in half. Hospitals, emergency call centers and other crucial facilities were holding up, but officials said it could get much worse as Irene churns north.More than 1.3 million of the homes and businesses without power were in Virginia and North Carolina, which bore the brunt of Irene's initial march. Maryland, Delaware and Washington, D.C. had about three-quarters of a million outages combined.New Jersey and Pennsylvania each had about three-quarters of a million without power, and hundreds of thousands of other customers were in the dark in New York and Connecticut.Officials in southern and mid-Atlantic states had warned of mass power outages, with some recalling the destructive Hurricane Isabel in 2003, and their predictions were confirmed after Irene moved over North Carolina as a Category 1 storm early Saturday.New York's biggest utility, Consolidated Edison, said it could cut power to the city's most vulnerable areas if the storm causes serious flooding. Salt water and rain can damage electrical equipment.ConEd operations chief John Miksad said the utility didn't expect to cut power before the storm hits, but flooding Sunday could bring a shutdown to areas including the southern tip of Manhattan. That would cut off power to major Wall Street institutions through parts of next week.The New York Stock Exchange has backup generators and can run on its own, a spokesman said. The exchange expects to open as usual Monday morning, though it may change plans depending on the severity of the storm.New York is regularly blasted by winter storms, but Miksad said this hurricane will be different. Irene's wind will pack a stronger punch than a nor'easter last March that knocked out power to 175,000 customers, he said.

ConEd has called in crews from as far as Colorado to help repair damage from the storm.Spokesmen for the utilities said Saturday that hundreds more crews from as far away as Alabama, Michigan and Quebec are ready to help out in Connecticut.Officials noted that crews wouldn't begin restoring power until conditions are safe. Hurricane-force winds are expected to hit the state later Sunday morning.Winds have already caused flooding and damage to many areas. North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut and Rhode Island have declared emergencies. For the first time, New York City ordered people in low-lying areas to evacuate.Power companies have called in several hundred workers from surrounding states to help. Crews were rushing out between bands in the hurricane, when the wind and rain ease. They're looking for damage first at towering transmission lines, where an outage could put an entire county in the dark.Gasoline supplies fell as drivers filled up before leaving town or just topped off their tanks as a precaution before the storm hit. Pump prices rose about 3 cents per gallon overnight in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.Refueling barges waited out the storm off the coast, also causing gasoline supplies to fall. Widespread power outages could lead to fuel shortages as gas stations are no longer able to pump gas or have trouble replenishing their own gas supplies.Power is the lifeblood of oil supply on the East Coast, said Ben Brockwell of the Oil Price Information Service, which tracks gasoline shipments around the country.Some gas stations in New Jersey reported that they'd run out of fuel. Those shortages could become more widespread.Retail gas prices were mostly unchanged in many cities that are expected to be hit this weekend. Rules against price gouging at gas stations took effect throughout Middle Atlantic states. Authorities will be looking for stations that try to take advantage of panicked drivers.Pump prices were up slightly overnight, as much as 3 cents per gallon, to $3.44 in Philadelphia and $3.49 in New Jersey's Atlantic-Cape May metro area. They seemed to hold in other areas, rising a penny or so on average in Maryland, Virginia and the Carolinas.

The Colonial Pipeline, which transports gasoline and other fuels from the Gulf Coast to the Northeast, stopped fuel deliveries to Selma, N.C., and to Virginia's Tidewater area as the storm knocked out power. Pipeline spokesman Steve Baker said the pipeline may cut off deliveries further in Virginia and Maryland as the storm moves north.Refineries, which make fuel from oil, have started to slow operations as Irene approaches.OPIS says East Coast refineries will cut operating rates 10 to 25 percent in the next few days. Refineries in the Gulf Coast and the West should be able to keep supplies flowing to the rest of the country.Refineries along the Louisiana Coast produce more than three times the gasoline and fuel of their East Coast counterparts, according to the Energy Information Administration. East Coast demand is going to fall as businesses close and people hunker down at home.Chris Kahn can be reached at http://twitter.com/ChrisKahnAP

Hurricane Irene dumps foot of rain; 2M powerless AP By SAMANTHA GROSS and MITCH WEISS, Associated Press – 6:00AM SUN AUG 28,11

NEW YORK – Barely a hurricane Sunday but massive and packed with rain, Irene flooded towns, killed at least eight people and knocked out power to more than 2 million homes and businesses as it plodded up the East Coast, saving the strongest winds it had left for New York.The streets of the nation's largest city were eerily quiet, its transit system shut down because of weather for the first time in history. Mayor Michael Bloomberg warned late Saturday that no matter whether residents of low-lying areas heeded his calls to evacuate, The time for evacuation is over. Everyone should now go inside and stay inside.The National Hurricane Center said that although tropical-storm-force winds covered a vast area of the mid-Atlantic states early Sunday morning, the only hurricane-force winds — 74 mph or above — covered a relatively small area over the Atlantic Ocean, east of the storm's center. Those winds were expected to retain hurricane strength until they finally reached land around midday Sunday over New York's Long Island.Tornadoes were reported in Maryland and Delaware, and several warnings were issued elsewhere, including New York and Philadelphia.Irene caused flooding from North Carolina to Delaware, both from the seven-foot waves it pushed into the coast and from heavy rain. Eastern North Carolina got 10 to 14 inches of rain, according to the National Weather Service. Virginia's Hampton Roads area was drenched with at least nine inches, with 16 reported in some spots.More than 1 million homes and businesses lost power in Virginia alone, where three people were killed by falling trees, at least one tornado touched down and about 100 roads were closed. Emergency crews around the region prepared to head out at daybreak to assess the damage, though with some roads impassable and rivers still rising, it could take days.Some held out optimism that their communities had suffered less damage than they had feared.

I think it's a little strong to say we dodged a bullet. However, it certainly could have turned out worse for the Hampton Roads area, said National Weather Service meteorologist Mike Montefusco.In North Carolina, where at least two people were killed, Gov. Beverly Perdue said Irene inflicted significant damage along the North Carolina coast and some areas were unreachable.Folks are cut off in parts of North Carolina, and obviously we're not going to get anybody to do an assessment until it's safe, she said.Television coverage showed evidence of damage across eastern North Carolina with downed trees and toppled power lines.A falling tree also killed one person in Maryland. A surfer and another beachgoer in Florida were killed in heavy waves caused by the storm.The storm arrived in Washington just days after an earthquake damaged some of the capital's most famous structures, including the Washington Monument. Irene could test Washington's ability to protect its national treasures and its poor.A nuclear reactor at Maryland's Calvert Cliffs went offline automatically when winds knocked off a large piece of aluminum siding that came into contact with the facility's main transformer late Saturday night. An unusual event was declared, the lowest of four emergency classifications by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, but Constellation Energy Nuclear Group spokesman Mark Sullivan said the facility and all employees were safe.Near Callway, Md., about 30 families were warned that a dam could spill over, causing significant flooding, and that they should either leave their homes or stay upstairs. St. Mary's County spokeswoman Sue Sabo said the dam was not in danger of breaching.

Irene made its official landfall just after first light near Cape Lookout, N.C., at the southern end of the Outer Banks, the ribbon of land that bows out into the Atlantic Ocean. Shorefront hotels and houses were lashed with waves, two piers were destroyed and at least one hospital was forced to run on generator power.Across the Eastern Seaboard, at least 2.3 million people were under orders to move to somewhere safer, though it was unclear how many obeyed.Annette Burton, 72, was asked to leave her Chester, Pa., neighborhood because of danger of rising water from a nearby creek. She said she planned to remain in the row house along with her daughter and adult grandson, although with a wary eye on the park across the street that routinely floods during heavy rains.I'm not a fool; if it starts coming up from the park, I'm leaving, she said.It's the wind I'm more concerned about than anything.As the storm's outer bands reached New York on Saturday night, two kayakers capsized and had to be rescued off Staten Island. They received summonses and a dressing-down from Bloomberg, who said at a press conference that they recklessly put rescuers' lives at risk.The storm hugged the U.S. coastline on a path that could scrape every state along the coast. By Sunday morning, it had sustained winds of 75 mph, down from 100 mph on Friday. That made it a Category 1, the least threatening on a 1-to-5 scale, and barely stronger than a tropical storm. Nevertheless, it was still considered highly dangerous, capable of causing ruinous flooding with a combination of storm surge, high tides and 6 to 12 inches of rain.Everything is still in effect, National Hurricane Center spokesman Dennis Feltgen said. The last thing people should do is go outside. They need to get inside and stay in a safe place until this thing is over.Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett warned that the state will not necessarily be out of danger once the storm has passed: The rivers may not crest until Tuesday or Wednesday. This isn't just a 24-hour event.Ed Rappaport, deputy director of the National Hurricane Center in Florida, said the storm is so large that areas far from Irene's center are going to be feeling strong winds and getting large amounts of rain, he said.It is a big, windy, rainy event, he said.

Irene was the first hurricane to make landfall in the continental United States since 2008, and came almost six years to the day after Katrina ravaged New Orleans on Aug. 29, 2005. Experts said that probably no other hurricane in American history had threatened as many people.Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told 6,500 troops from all branches of the military to get ready to pitch in on relief work, and President Barack Obama visited the Federal Emergency Management Agency's command center in Washington and offered moral support.It's going to be a long 72 hours, he said,and obviously a lot of families are going to be affected.In New York, authorities undertook the herculean job of bringing the city to a halt. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority shut down its subways, trains and buses for a natural disaster for the first time, a job that began at noon Saturday and took into late that night to complete.On Wall Street, sandbags were placed around subway grates near the East River because of fear of flooding. Tarps were spread over other grates. Construction stopped throughout the city, and workers at the site of the World Trade Center dismantled a crane and secured equipment.The city was far quieter than on an average Saturday. In some of the busiest parts of Manhattan, it was possible to cross a major avenue without looking, and the waters of New York Harbor, which might normally be churning from boat traffic, were quiet. About 370,000 people living in low-lying areas of the city, mostly in Lower Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens, were under orders to clear out.New York has seen only a few hurricanes in the past 200 years. The Northeast is much more used to snowstorms — including a blizzard last December, when Bloomberg was criticized for a slow response.Airlines said 9,000 flights were canceled, including 3,000 on Saturday. The number of passengers affected could easily be millions because so many flights make connections on the East Coast.Greyhound suspended bus service between Richmond, Va., and Boston. Amtrak canceled trains in the Northeast for Sunday.In Philadelphia, Mayor Michael Nutter declared a state of emergency, the first for the city since 1986, when racial tensions were running high. We are trying to save lives and don't have time for silliness,he said.In New Jersey, the Oyster Creek nuclear plant, just a few miles from the coast, shut down as a precaution as Irene closed in. And Boston's transit authority said all bus, subway and commuter rail service would be suspended all day Sunday.Mitch Weiss reported from Nags Head, N.C. Associated Press writers contributing to this report were Tim Reynolds and Christine Armario in Miami; Bruce Shipkowski in Surf City, N.J.; Geoff Mulvihill in Trenton, N.J.; Wayne Parry in Atlantic City, N.J.; Eric Tucker in Washington; Martha Waggoner and Gary D. Robertson in Raleigh, N.C.; Jessica Gresko in Ocean City, Md.; Mitch Weiss in Nags Head, N.C.; Alex Dominguez in Baltimore; Brock Vergakis in Virginia Beach, Va.; Samantha Bomkamp and Jonathan Fahey in New York; and Seth Borenstein in Washington.

Tornado warning for NYC expires; watch in place
AP SUN AUG 28,11 5:30AM

NEW YORK – The National Weather Service says a tornado warning issued for the New York City boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens has expired, and a watch is in place.The agency said radar had spotted rotating clouds in a severe thunderstorm approaching the area before 4 a.m. Sunday. The agency says the warning expired at 4:15 a.m. Sunday with a report of a toppled tree in the area but no immediate confirmation of any tornadoes.Authorities had said that the approaching hurricane might spawn tornadoes. Irene is expected to make landfall in the New York City area at around 10 a.m.A tornado watch remains in effect until 5 a.m. Sunday for New York City, Long Island and southern Connecticut. A tornado watch means conditions are favorable for tornadoes to form.

8 dead as typhoon slams northern Philippines
AP By JIM GOMEZ, Associated Press – 4:45AM SUN AUG 28,11

MANILA, Philippines – Slow-moving Typhoon Nanmadol remained dangerous Sunday despite weakening as it struck the tip of the mountainous northern Philippines, leaving at least eight people dead and scuttling a visit by a U.S. Navy battleship group, officials said.Taiwan issued sea and land warnings and planned to evacuate about 3,700 people in its eastern and southern regions as it braced for the typhoon. Troops and rescue equipment have been deployed in advance for any contingency, Taiwan's Defense Ministry said.With its enormous cloud band, the typhoon drenched northern provinces with rains for days before pummeling them with fierce winds, setting off landslides and floods and knocking down walls that left at least eight people dead and six more missing, said Benito Ramos, who heads the Office of Civil Defense.Strong winds knocked down a concrete wall, which hit a small eatery in the capital's suburban Quezon City Sunday, killing a man and injuring two others in the latest casualties of the typhoon, police said.In the northern mountain resort city of Baguio, a garbage dump's concrete wall collapsed and buried three shanties under tons of garbage Saturday, killing two children. Their grandmother remained missing, Ramos said.Five others perished in landslides or drowned, including a fisherman, whose body was found floating Saturday off eastern Catanduanes province after he went missing late last week. A decision by many villagers to flee to safety before the typhoon struck and vigilance helped reduced the number of casualties, Ramos said.

A bus driver ordered his 18 passengers to rapidly alight after sensing the soggy mountain road they were on was about to collapse late Saturday in northern Benguet province. After they ran to safety, the road collapsed with the bus down a deep ravine, said regional disaster-response official Olive Luces said.The driver's presence of mind prevented a disaster, Luces said.About 20 landslides cut off access to a number of Benguet towns, she said.U.S. officials postponed a Manila visit by the U.S. Navy's John C. Stennis Carrier Strike Group, originally scheduled for this weekend, due to the bad weather.The U.S. Embassy said all tours of the aircraft carrier, as well as the reception on board, had been canceled.Domestic airlines also canceled more than a dozen flights to areas affected by the typhoon in the northern and central Philippines.Nanmadol had sustained wind of 121 miles (195 kilometers) per hour and gusts of 143 mph (230 kph) Friday, becoming the strongest typhoon to hit the Philippines so far this year. It weakened after grazing northern Cagayan province Saturday. It would skirt the northernmost Batanes islands with 75 mph (120 kph) winds Sunday before starting to blow away from the country, Philippine government forecasters said.Nanmadol was expected to hit Taiwan as early as Monday, Taiwan's central weather bureau said.On Sunday, local TV footage showed parts of eastern and southern Taiwan drenched in rain and with minor flooding, and strong winds blew a van across a road in the eastern Taiwanese county of Taitung.Ferries connecting Taiwan's mainland to islets and some domestic flights were canceled, while train service in southern and eastern Taiwan was to be suspended starting late Sunday afternoon.Two eastern Taiwanese counties said people did not have to go to school or work on Monday.Associated Press writers Oliver Teves in Manila and Debby Wu in Taipei contributed to this report.

NYC streets empty ahead of Irene; subways stop 10:15PM AUG 27,11 AP By SAMANTHA GROSS and LARRY NEUMEISTER, Associated Press

NEW YORK – The normally bustling streets emptied out and the rumble of the subways came to a stop.New York buttoned up Saturday against Hurricane Irene, which threatened to paralyze Wall Street and give the big city its worst thrashing from a storm since at least the 1980s.City officials cautioned that if Irene stayed on track, it could bring gusts of 85 mph overnight that could shatter skyscraper windows. They said there was an outside chance that a storm surge in Lower Manhattan could send seawater streaming into the maze of underground vaults that hold the city's cables and pipes, knocking out power to thousands and crippling the nation's financial capital.Mayor Michael Bloomberg ordered the first mandatory evacuation ever in New York. More than 370,000 people were told to be out by 5 p.m. from low-lying areas on the fringes of the city, mostly in Lower Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens.Many New Yorkers seemed to take it in stride, staying off the streets and hunkering down. Some planned hurricane get-togethers and hot tub parties.We already have the wine and beer, and now we're getting the vodka, said Martin Murphy, a video artist who was shopping at a liquor store near Central Park with his girlfriend.If it lasts, we have dozens of movies ready, and we'll play charades and we're going to make cards that say, We survived Irene,he said.All subway service was suspended because of the threat of flooding in the tunnels — the first time the nation's biggest transit system has shut down because of a natural disaster. Sandbags and tarps were placed on or around subway grates.Heed the warnings,Bloomberg said, his shirt getting soaked as the rain fell in Coney Island. It isn't cute to say,I'm tougher than any storm.... I hope this is not necessary, but it's certainly prudent.

People arrived in a trickle at a shelter set up at a high school in the Park Slope section of Brooklyn. Some carried garbage bags filled with clothing; others pushed carts loaded with their belongings.They were evacuated from a public housing project in Brooklyn's Red Hook section. Tenants said management got them to leave by telling them the water and power would be shut off at 5 p.m.For us, it's him, said Victor Valderrama, pointing to his 3-year-old son. I didn't want to take a chance with my son.In Times Square, shops boarded up windows, put sandbags outside entrances and the street performer known as the Naked Cowboy, who stands at the Crossroads of the World wearing only underwear and a guitar, had a life vest on.Construction came to a standstill across the city, and workers at the World Trade Center site dismantled a crane and secured equipment. The mayor said there would be no effect on the opening of the Sept. 11 memorial on the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks.Con Edison brought in hundreds of extra utility workers from around the country. While the foot of Manhattan is protected by a seawall and a network of pumps, Con Ed vice president John Mucci said the utility stood ready to turn off the power to about 6,500 customers there in the event of severe flooding.Mucci said it could take up to three days to restore the power if the cables became drenched with saltwater, which can be particularly damaging.The New York Stock Exchange has backup generators and can run on its own, a spokesman said.Con Ed also shut down about 10 miles of steam pipes underneath the city to prevent explosions if they came in contact with cold water. The shutdown affected 50 commercial and residential customers around the city who use the pipes for heat, hot water and air conditioning.

Irene came ashore in North Carolina on Saturday morning, slightly weakened but still powerful, and was expected to roll up the densely populated Interstate 95 corridor. More than 8.3 million people live in New York City, and nearly 29 million in the metropolitan area.A hurricane warning was issued for the city Friday afternoon, the first since Gloria in September 1985. That storm blew ashore on Long Island with winds of 85 mph and caused millions of dollars in damage, along with one death in New York.While Bloomberg strongly cautioned against staying put, he also said no one was going door-to-door to force residents out. And many apparently chose not to go.
The city opened more than 90 evacuation shelters with room for about 70,000 people. But by early evening, only about 5,500 had checked in, officials said.The evacuation order went unheeded by many tenants at a large public housing complex in Brooklyn.
Oh, forget Bloomberg. We ain't going anywhere, said Evelyn Burrus, 60. Go to some shelter with a bunch of strangers and bedbugs? No way.The area's three major airports — LaGuardia, Kennedy and Newark Liberty — closed at noon to arriving flights. Departing flights were to be shut down by 10 p.m.Subway trains began grinding to a halt at noon.

The transit system won't reopen until at least Monday, after pumps remove water from flooded stations. The subways routinely flood during even ordinary storms and have to be pumped out.The city's transit system carries about 5 million passengers on an average weekday. The last time it was seriously hobbled was an August 2007 rainstorm that disabled or delayed every one of the city's subway lines. It was also shut down after the 9/11 attacks and during a 2005 strike.Many New Yorkers were left to hail taxis. To encourage cab-sharing and speed the evacuation, taxis switched to zone fares, meaning passengers were charged not for the mileage on the meter but according to which section of the city they were going to.Boilers and elevators were shut down in public housing in evacuation areas to encourage tenants to leave and to prevent people from getting stuck in elevators if the power went out.Some hotels were shutting off their elevators and air conditioners. Others had generators ready to go.Dozens of buses arrived at the Brooklyn Cyclones minor league ballpark in Coney Island to help residents get out. Nursing homes and hospitals were emptied.At a shelter set up at a high school in the Long Island town of Brentwood, Alexander Ho calmly ate a sandwich in the cafeteria. Ho left his first-floor apartment in East Islip, even though it is several blocks from the water, just outside the mandatory evacuation zone.Objects outside can be projected as missiles, he said.I figured my apartment didn't seem as safe as I thought, as every room has a window.Associated Press Writers Amy Westfeldt, Verena Dobnik, Tom Hays, Meghan Barr, David B. Caruso, Colleen Long and Deepti Hajela in New York contributed to this report.Samantha Gross can be reached at _http://www.twitter.com/samanthagross

Nearly 900,000 lose power as Irene moves north
AP By CHRIS KAHN - AP Energy Writer | AP – 8PM AUG 27,11

Nearly 900,000 homes and businesses lost power as Hurricane Irene slammed into the East Coast. A million or more could be in the dark by Saturday night as the storm charges north.Winds of up to 115 miles per hour whipped across the Eastern Seaboard, ripping power lines from poles and snapping trees in half. Hospitals, emergency call centers and other crucial facilities were holding up, but officials said it could get much worse as Irene churns north.Gasoline supplies were falling as drivers fill up before leaving town or just top off their tanks as a precaution before the storm hits. Pump prices rose about 3 cents per gallon overnight in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.So far, the power losses were concentrated in Virginia and North Carolina, where Irene charged ashore early Saturday morning. Thousands more are expected as the storm moves up the heavily populated Interstate 95 corridor.Dominion Resources reported outages for 598,000 of its customers in Virginia and North Carolina, while Progress Energy reported 263,000 customers without power, with much of the damage in Wilmington and Wrightsville Beach, N.C.We expect those numbers to increase, Progress spokeswoman Julia Milstead said.Duke Energy said 13,800 customers were in the dark. Pepco, which serves Maryland, Washington D.C., parts of New Jersey and Delaware reported nearly 14,000 outages. Baltimore Gas & Electric said 9,000 of its customers were without power.New York's biggest utility, Consolidated Edison, said it could cut power to the city's most vulnerable areas if the storm causes serious flooding. Salt water and rain can damage electrical equipment.ConEd operations chief John Miksad said the utility doesn't expect to cut power before the storm hits, but flooding Sunday could bring a shutdown to areas including the southern tip of Manhattan. That would cut off power to major Wall Street institutions through parts of next week.The New York Stock Exchange has backup generators and can run on its own, a spokesman said Friday. The exchange expects to open as usual Monday morning, though it may change plans depending on the severity of the storm.

New York is regularly blasted by winter storms, but Miksad said this hurricane will be different. Irene's wind will pack a stronger punch than a nor'easter last March that knocked out power to 175,000 customers, he said.ConEd has called in crews from as far as Colorado to help repair damage from the storm.Irene is expected to be a brutal test for Middle Atlantic States, which haven't seen a hurricane since 1999. The storm is expected to stay just offshore — and thus retain much of its power — as it inches up the coast from North Carolina to New England. When a hurricane hits land, wind speeds diminish.The entire Eastern Seaboard lies in the storm's projected path. Flooding and damage from winds are likely. North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut and Rhode Island have declared emergencies. For the first time, New York City ordered people in low-lying areas to evacuate.Power companies have called in several hundred workers from surrounding states to help. Crews were rushing out between bands in the hurricane, when the wind and rain ease. They're looking for damage first at towering transmission lines, where an outage could put an entire county in the dark.The storm has already caused gasoline supplies to fall as refueling barges wait out the storm off the coast. Widespread power outages could lead to fuel shortages as gas stations are no longer able to pump gas or have trouble replenishing their own gas supplies.Power is the lifeblood of oil supply on the East Coast, said Ben Brockwell of the Oil Price Information Service, which tracks gasoline shipments around the country.Some gas stations in New Jersey reported that they'd run out of fuel. Those shortages could become more widespread.Retail gas prices were mostly unchanged in many cities that are expected to be hit this weekend. Rules against price gouging at gas stations took effect throughout Middle Atlantic states. Authorities will be looking for stations that try to take advantage of panicked drivers.Pump prices were up slightly overnight, as much as 3 cents per gallon, to $3.44 in Philadelphia and $3.49 in New Jersey's Atlantic-Cape May metro area. They seemed to hold in other areas, rising a penny or so on average in Maryland, Virginia and the Carolinas.

The Colonial Pipeline, which transports gasoline and other fuels from the Gulf Coast to the Northeast, stopped fuel deliveries to Selma, N.C., and to Virginia's Tidewater area as the storm knocked out power. Pipeline spokesman Steve Baker said the pipeline may cut off deliveries further in Virginia and Maryland as the storm moves north.Refineries, which make fuel from oil, have started to slow operations as Irene approaches.OPIS says East Coast refineries will cut operating rates 10 percent to 25 percent in the next few days. Refineries in the Gulf Coast and the West should be able to keep supplies flowing to the rest of the country.Refineries along the Louisiana Coast produce more than three times the gasoline and fuel of their East Coast counterparts, according to the Energy Information Administration. East Coast demand is going to fall as businesses close and people hunker down at home.Chris Kahn can be reached at http://twitter.com/ChrisKahnAP

Parshah Shoftim - Deuteronomy 16:18-21:9

SINCE WHAT ISRAEL READS WILL BE FULFILLED IN THAT WEEK I WILL BE PUTTING THE WEEKLY TORAH PORTION ON FOR ALL OF US TO KEEP TRACK OF ISRAEL HAPPENINGS.

TORAH PORTION FROM AUGUST 28,2011 6PM - SEPTEMBER 03,6PM 2011

DEUTERONOMY 16:18 - 21:9
18 Judges and officers shalt thou make thee in all thy gates, which the LORD thy God giveth thee, throughout thy tribes: and they shall judge the people with just judgment.
19 Thou shalt not wrest judgment; thou shalt not respect persons, neither take a gift: for a gift doth blind the eyes of the wise, and pervert the words of the righteous.
20 That which is altogether just shalt thou follow, that thou mayest live, and inherit the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.
21 Thou shalt not plant thee a grove of any trees near unto the altar of the LORD thy God, which thou shalt make thee.
22 Neither shalt thou set thee up any image; which the LORD thy God hateth.

DEUTERONOMY 17:1-20
1 Thou shalt not sacrifice unto the LORD thy God any bullock, or sheep, wherein is blemish, or any evilfavouredness: for that is an abomination unto the LORD thy God.
2 If there be found among you, within any of thy gates which the LORD thy God giveth thee, man or woman, that hath wrought wickedness in the sight of the LORD thy God, in transgressing his covenant,
3 And hath gone and served other gods, and worshipped them, either the sun, or moon, or any of the host of heaven, which I have not commanded;
4 And it be told thee, and thou hast heard of it, and enquired diligently, and, behold, it be true, and the thing certain, that such abomination is wrought in Israel:
5 Then shalt thou bring forth that man or that woman, which have committed that wicked thing, unto thy gates, even that man or that woman, and shalt stone them with stones, till they die.
6 At the mouth of two witnesses, or three witnesses, shall he that is worthy of death be put to death; but at the mouth of one witness he shall not be put to death.
7 The hands of the witnesses shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterward the hands of all the people. So thou shalt put the evil away from among you.
8 If there arise a matter too hard for thee in judgment, between blood and blood, between plea and plea, and between stroke and stroke, being matters of controversy within thy gates: then shalt thou arise, and get thee up into the place which the LORD thy God shall choose;
9 And thou shalt come unto the priests the Levites, and unto the judge that shall be in those days, and enquire; and they shall shew thee the sentence of judgment:
10 And thou shalt do according to the sentence, which they of that place which the LORD shall choose shall shew thee; and thou shalt observe to do according to all that they inform thee:
11 According to the sentence of the law which they shall teach thee, and according to the judgment which they shall tell thee, thou shalt do: thou shalt not decline from the sentence which they shall shew thee, to the right hand, nor to the left.
12 And the man that will do presumptuously, and will not hearken unto the priest that standeth to minister there before the LORD thy God, or unto the judge, even that man shall die: and thou shalt put away the evil from Israel.
13 And all the people shall hear, and fear, and do no more presumptuously.
14 When thou art come unto the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, and shalt possess it, and shalt dwell therein, and shalt say, I will set a king over me, like as all the nations that are about me;
15 Thou shalt in any wise set him king over thee, whom the LORD thy God shall choose: one from among thy brethren shalt thou set king over thee: thou mayest not set a stranger over thee, which is not thy brother.
16 But he shall not multiply horses to himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt, to the end that he should multiply horses: forasmuch as the LORD hath said unto you, Ye shall henceforth return no more that way.
17 Neither shall he multiply wives to himself, that his heart turn not away: neither shall he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold.
18 And it shall be, when he sitteth upon the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write him a copy of this law in a book out of that which is before the priests the Levites:
19 And it shall be with him, and he shall read therein all the days of his life: that he may learn to fear the LORD his God, to keep all the words of this law and these statutes, to do them:
20 That his heart be not lifted up above his brethren, and that he turn not aside from the commandment, to the right hand, or to the left: to the end that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he, and his children, in the midst of Israel.

DEUTERONOMY 18:1-22
1 The priests the Levites, and all the tribe of Levi, shall have no part nor inheritance with Israel: they shall eat the offerings of the LORD made by fire, and his inheritance.
2 Therefore shall they have no inheritance among their brethren: the LORD is their inheritance, as he hath said unto them.
3 And this shall be the priest's due from the people, from them that offer a sacrifice, whether it be ox or sheep; and they shall give unto the priest the shoulder, and the two cheeks, and the maw.
4 The firstfruit also of thy corn, of thy wine, and of thine oil, and the first of the fleece of thy sheep, shalt thou give him.
5 For the LORD thy God hath chosen him out of all thy tribes, to stand to minister in the name of the LORD, him and his sons for ever.
6 And if a Levite come from any of thy gates out of all Israel, where he sojourned, and come with all the desire of his mind unto the place which the LORD shall choose;
7 Then he shall minister in the name of the LORD his God, as all his brethren the Levites do, which stand there before the LORD.
8 They shall have like portions to eat, beside that which cometh of the sale of his patrimony.
9 When thou art come into the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those nations.
10 There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch,
11 Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer.
12 For all that do these things are an abomination unto the LORD: and because of these abominations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee.
13 Thou shalt be perfect with the LORD thy God.
14 For these nations, which thou shalt possess, hearkened unto observers of times, and unto diviners: but as for thee, the LORD thy God hath not suffered thee so to do.
15 The LORD thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken;
16 According to all that thou desiredst of the LORD thy God in Horeb in the day of the assembly, saying, Let me not hear again the voice of the LORD my God, neither let me see this great fire any more, that I die not.
17 And the LORD said unto me, They have well spoken that which they have spoken.
18 I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him.
19 And it shall come to pass, that whosoever will not hearken unto my words which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him.
20 But the prophet, which shall presume to speak a word in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or that shall speak in the name of other gods, even that prophet shall die.
21 And if thou say in thine heart, How shall we know the word which the LORD hath not spoken?
22 When a prophet speaketh in the name of the LORD, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the LORD hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him.

DEUTERONOMY 19:1-21
1 When the LORD thy God hath cut off the nations, whose land the LORD thy God giveth thee, and thou succeedest them, and dwellest in their cities, and in their houses;
2 Thou shalt separate three cities for thee in the midst of thy land, which the LORD thy God giveth thee to possess it.
3 Thou shalt prepare thee a way, and divide the coasts of thy land, which the LORD thy God giveth thee to inherit, into three parts, that every slayer may flee thither.
4 And this is the case of the slayer, which shall flee thither, that he may live: Whoso killeth his neighbour ignorantly, whom he hated not in time past;
5 As when a man goeth into the wood with his neighbour to hew wood, and his hand fetcheth a stroke with the axe to cut down the tree, and the head slippeth from the helve, and lighteth upon his neighbour, that he die; he shall flee unto one of those cities, and live:
6 Lest the avenger of the blood pursue the slayer, while his heart is hot, and overtake him, because the way is long, and slay him; whereas he was not worthy of death, inasmuch as he hated him not in time past.
7 Wherefore I command thee, saying, Thou shalt separate three cities for thee.
8 And if the LORD thy God enlarge thy coast, as he hath sworn unto thy fathers, and give thee all the land which he promised to give unto thy fathers;
9 If thou shalt keep all these commandments to do them, which I command thee this day, to love the LORD thy God, and to walk ever in his ways; then shalt thou add three cities more for thee, beside these three:
10 That innocent blood be not shed in thy land, which the LORD thy God giveth thee for an inheritance, and so blood be upon thee.
11 But if any man hate his neighbour, and lie in wait for him, and rise up against him, and smite him mortally that he die, and fleeth into one of these cities:
12 Then the elders of his city shall send and fetch him thence, and deliver him into the hand of the avenger of blood, that he may die.
13 Thine eye shall not pity him, but thou shalt put away the guilt of innocent blood from Israel, that it may go well with thee.
14 Thou shalt not remove thy neighbour's landmark, which they of old time have set in thine inheritance, which thou shalt inherit in the land that the LORD thy God giveth thee to possess it.
15 One witness shall not rise up against a man for any iniquity, or for any sin, in any sin that he sinneth: at the mouth of two witnesses, or at the mouth of three witnesses, shall the matter be established.
16 If a false witness rise up against any man to testify against him that which is wrong;
17 Then both the men, between whom the controversy is, shall stand before the LORD, before the priests and the judges, which shall be in those days;
18 And the judges shall make diligent inquisition: and, behold, if the witness be a false witness, and hath testified falsely against his brother;
19 Then shall ye do unto him, as he had thought to have done unto his brother: so shalt thou put the evil away from among you.
20 And those which remain shall hear, and fear, and shall henceforth commit no more any such evil among you.
21 And thine eye shall not pity; but life shall go for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.

DEUTERONOMY 20:1-20
1 When thou goest out to battle against thine enemies, and seest horses, and chariots, and a people more than thou, be not afraid of them: for the LORD thy God is with thee, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.
2 And it shall be, when ye are come nigh unto the battle, that the priest shall approach and speak unto the people,
3 And shall say unto them, Hear, O Israel, ye approach this day unto battle against your enemies: let not your hearts faint, fear not, and do not tremble, neither be ye terrified because of them;
4 For the LORD your God is he that goeth with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you.
5 And the officers shall speak unto the people, saying, What man is there that hath built a new house, and hath not dedicated it? let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man dedicate it.
6 And what man is he that hath planted a vineyard, and hath not yet eaten of it? let him also go and return unto his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man eat of it.
7 And what man is there that hath betrothed a wife, and hath not taken her? let him go and return unto his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man take her.
8 And the officers shall speak further unto the people, and they shall say, What man is there that is fearful and fainthearted? let him go and return unto his house, lest his brethren's heart faint as well as his heart.
9 And it shall be, when the officers have made an end of speaking unto the people, that they shall make captains of the armies to lead the people.
10 When thou comest nigh unto a city to fight against it, then proclaim peace unto it.
11 And it shall be, if it make thee answer of peace, and open unto thee, then it shall be, that all the people that is found therein shall be tributaries unto thee, and they shall serve thee.
12 And if it will make no peace with thee, but will make war against thee, then thou shalt besiege it:
13 And when the LORD thy God hath delivered it into thine hands, thou shalt smite every male thereof with the edge of the sword:
14 But the women, and the little ones, and the cattle, and all that is in the city, even all the spoil thereof, shalt thou take unto thyself; and thou shalt eat the spoil of thine enemies, which the LORD thy God hath given thee.
15 Thus shalt thou do unto all the cities which are very far off from thee, which are not of the cities of these nations.
16 But of the cities of these people, which the LORD thy God doth give thee for an inheritance, thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth:
17 But thou shalt utterly destroy them; namely, the Hittites, and the Amorites, the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites; as the LORD thy God hath commanded thee:
18 That they teach you not to do after all their abominations, which they have done unto their gods; so should ye sin against the LORD your God.
19 When thou shalt besiege a city a long time, in making war against it to take it, thou shalt not destroy the trees thereof by forcing an axe against them: for thou mayest eat of them, and thou shalt not cut them down (for the tree of the field is man's life) to employ them in the siege:
20 Only the trees which thou knowest that they be not trees for meat, thou shalt destroy and cut them down; and thou shalt build bulwarks against the city that maketh war with thee, until it be subdued.

DEUTERONOMY 21:1-9
1 If one be found slain in the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee to possess it, lying in the field, and it be not known who hath slain him:
2 Then thy elders and thy judges shall come forth, and they shall measure unto the cities which are round about him that is slain:
3 And it shall be, that the city which is next unto the slain man, even the elders of that city shall take an heifer, which hath not been wrought with, and which hath not drawn in the yoke;
4 And the elders of that city shall bring down the heifer unto a rough valley, which is neither eared nor sown, and shall strike off the heifer's neck there in the valley:
5 And the priests the sons of Levi shall come near; for them the LORD thy God hath chosen to minister unto him, and to bless in the name of the LORD; and by their word shall every controversy and every stroke be tried:
6 And all the elders of that city, that are next unto the slain man, shall wash their hands over the heifer that is beheaded in the valley:
7 And they shall answer and say, Our hands have not shed this blood, neither have our eyes seen it.
8 Be merciful, O LORD, unto thy people Israel, whom thou hast redeemed, and lay not innocent blood unto thy people of Israel's charge. And the blood shall be forgiven them.
9 So shalt thou put away the guilt of innocent blood from among you, when thou shalt do that which is right in the sight of the LORD.

PROPHETS PORTION

ISAIAH 51:12 - 53:12
12 I, even I, am he that comforteth you: who art thou, that thou shouldest be afraid of a man that shall die, and of the son of man which shall be made as grass;
13 And forgettest the LORD thy maker, that hath stretched forth the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth; and hast feared continually every day because of the fury of the oppressor, as if he were ready to destroy? and where is the fury of the oppressor?
14 The captive exile hasteneth that he may be loosed, and that he should not die in the pit, nor that his bread should fail.
15 But I am the LORD thy God, that divided the sea, whose waves roared: The LORD of hosts is his name.
16 And I have put my words in thy mouth, and I have covered thee in the shadow of mine hand, that I may plant the heavens, and lay the foundations of the earth, and say unto Zion, Thou art my people.
17 Awake, awake, stand up, O Jerusalem, which hast drunk at the hand of the LORD the cup of his fury; thou hast drunken the dregs of the cup of trembling, and wrung them out.
18 There is none to guide her among all the sons whom she hath brought forth; neither is there any that taketh her by the hand of all the sons that she hath brought up.
19 These two things are come unto thee; who shall be sorry for thee? desolation, and destruction, and the famine, and the sword: by whom shall I comfort thee?
20 Thy sons have fainted, they lie at the head of all the streets, as a wild bull in a net: they are full of the fury of the LORD, the rebuke of thy God.
21 Therefore hear now this, thou afflicted, and drunken, but not with wine:
22 Thus saith thy Lord the LORD, and thy God that pleadeth the cause of his people, Behold, I have taken out of thine hand the cup of trembling, even the dregs of the cup of my fury; thou shalt no more drink it again:
23 But I will put it into the hand of them that afflict thee; which have said to thy soul, Bow down, that we may go over: and thou hast laid thy body as the ground, and as the street, to them that went over.

ISAIAH 52:1-15
1 Awake, awake; put on thy strength, O Zion; put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city: for henceforth there shall no more come into thee the uncircumcised and the unclean.
2 Shake thyself from the dust; arise, and sit down, O Jerusalem: loose thyself from the bands of thy neck, O captive daughter of Zion.
3 For thus saith the LORD, Ye have sold yourselves for nought; and ye shall be redeemed without money.
4 For thus saith the Lord GOD, My people went down aforetime into Egypt to sojourn there; and the Assyrian oppressed them without cause.
5 Now therefore, what have I here, saith the LORD, that my people is taken away for nought? they that rule over them make them to howl, saith the LORD; and my name continually every day is blasphemed.
6 Therefore my people shall know my name: therefore they shall know in that day that I am he that doth speak: behold, it is I.
7 How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth!
8 Thy watchmen shall lift up the voice; with the voice together shall they sing: for they shall see eye to eye, when the LORD shall bring again Zion.
9 Break forth into joy, sing together, ye waste places of Jerusalem: for the LORD hath comforted his people, he hath redeemed Jerusalem.
10 The LORD hath made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.
11 Depart ye, depart ye, go ye out from thence, touch no unclean thing; go ye out of the midst of her; be ye clean, that bear the vessels of the LORD.
12 For ye shall not go out with haste, nor go by flight: for the LORD will go before you; and the God of Israel will be your rereward.
13 Behold, my servant shall deal prudently, he shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high.
14 As many were astonied at thee; his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men:
15 So shall he sprinkle many nations; the kings shall shut their mouths at him: for that which had not been told them shall they see; and that which they had not heard shall they consider.

ISAIAH 53:1-12
1 Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed?
2 For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.
3 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
4 Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.
8 He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken.
9 And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.
10 Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.
11 He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

NEW TESTAMENT PORTION

MATTHEW 5:38-42
38 Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth:
39 But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.
40 And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloke also.
41 And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain.
42 Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away.

MATTHEW 18:15-20
15 Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother.
16 But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.
17 And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church: but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican.
18 Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
19 Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven.
20 For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.

ACTS 3:13-26
13 The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, hath glorified his Son Jesus; whom ye delivered up, and denied him in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let him go.
14 But ye denied the Holy One and the Just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto you;
15 And killed the Prince of life, whom God hath raised from the dead; whereof we are witnesses.
16 And his name through faith in his name hath made this man strong, whom ye see and know: yea, the faith which is by him hath given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all.
17 And now, brethren, I wot that through ignorance ye did it, as did also your rulers.
18 But those things, which God before had shewed by the mouth of all his prophets, that Christ should suffer, he hath so fulfilled.
19 Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord;
20 And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you:
21 Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began.
22 For Moses truly said unto the fathers, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you.
23 And it shall come to pass, that every soul, which will not hear that prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people.
24 Yea, and all the prophets from Samuel and those that follow after, as many as have spoken, have likewise foretold of these days.
25 Ye are the children of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying unto Abraham, And in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed.
26 Unto you first God, having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities.

ACTS 7:35-53
35 This Moses whom they refused, saying, Who made thee a ruler and a judge? the same did God send to be a ruler and a deliverer by the hand of the angel which appeared to him in the bush.
36 He brought them out, after that he had shewed wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, and in the Red sea, and in the wilderness forty years.
37 This is that Moses, which said unto the children of Israel, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear.
38 This is he, that was in the church in the wilderness with the angel which spake to him in the mount Sina, and with our fathers: who received the lively oracles to give unto us:
39 To whom our fathers would not obey, but thrust him from them, and in their hearts turned back again into Egypt,
40 Saying unto Aaron, Make us gods to go before us: for as for this Moses, which brought us out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him.
41 And they made a calf in those days, and offered sacrifice unto the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their own hands.
42 Then God turned, and gave them up to worship the host of heaven; as it is written in the book of the prophets, O ye house of Israel, have ye offered to me slain beasts and sacrifices by the space of forty years in the wilderness?
43 Yea, ye took up the tabernacle of Moloch, and the star of your god Remphan, figures which ye made to worship them: and I will carry you away beyond Babylon.
44 Our fathers had the tabernacle of witness in the wilderness, as he had appointed, speaking unto Moses, that he should make it according to the fashion that he had seen.
45 Which also our fathers that came after brought in with Jesus into the possession of the Gentiles, whom God drave out before the face of our fathers, unto the days of David;
46 Who found favour before God, and desired to find a tabernacle for the God of Jacob.
47 But Solomon built him an house.
48 Howbeit the most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands; as saith the prophet,
49 Heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool: what house will ye build me? saith the Lord: or what is the place of my rest?
50 Hath not my hand made all these things?
51 Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye.
52 Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which shewed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers:
53 Who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it.

1 CORINTHIANS 5:9-13
9 I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators:
10 Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world.
11 But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat.
12 For what have I to do to judge them also that are without? do not ye judge them that are within?
13 But them that are without God judgeth. Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person.

1 TIMOTHY 5:17-22
17 Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honour, especially they who labour in the word and doctrine.
18 For the scripture saith, Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn. And, The labourer is worthy of his reward.
19 Against an elder receive not an accusation, but before two or three witnesses.
20 Them that sin rebuke before all, that others also may fear.
21 I charge thee before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, and the elect angels, that thou observe these things without preferring one before another, doing nothing by partiality.
22 Lay hands suddenly on no man, neither be partaker of other men’s sins: keep thyself pure.

HEBREWS 10:28-31
28 He that despised Moses’ law died without mercy under two or three witnesses:
29 Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?
30 For we know him that hath said, Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense, saith the Lord. And again, The Lord shall judge his people.
31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

BAD WEEKEND WITH IRENE ONE DANGEROUS EXTREMIST STORM

STORMS HURRICANES-TORNADOES

LUKE 21:25-26
25 And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity;(MASS CONFUSION) the sea and the waves roaring;(FIERCE WINDS)
26 Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.

THE FIRST JUDGEMENT OF THE EARTH STARTED WITH WATER-IT ONLY MAKES SENSE THE LAST GENERATION WILL BE HAVING FLOODING
GENESIS 7:6-12
6 And Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters was upon the earth.
7 And Noah went in, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons’ wives with him, into the ark, because of the waters of the flood.
8 Of clean beasts, and of beasts that are not clean, and of fowls, and of every thing that creepeth upon the earth,
9 There went in two and two unto Noah into the ark, the male and the female, as God had commanded Noah.
10 And it came to pass after seven days, that the waters of the flood were upon the earth.
11 In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.
12 And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights.
GOD PROMISED BY A RAINBOW-THE EARTH WOULD NEVER BE DESTROYED TOTALLY WITH A FLOOD AGAIN.BUT FLOODIING IS A SIGN OF JUDGEMENT.

Irene lashing Va coast with hurricane winds, rain
AP By MITCH WEISS and SAMANTHA GROSS, Associated Press – 10:00PM AUG 27,11

NAGS HEAD, N.C. – Still menacing Hurricane Irene knocked out power and piers in North Carolina, clobbered Virginia with wind and churned up the coast Saturday to confront cities more accustomed to snowstorms than tropical storms. New York City emptied its streets and subways and waited with an eerie quiet.With most of its transportation machinery shut down, the Eastern Seaboard spent the day nervously watching the storm's march across a swath of the nation inhabited by 65 million people. The hurricane had an enormous wingspan — 500 miles, its outer reaches stretching from the Carolinas to Cape Cod — and packed wind gusts of 115 mph.At least 1.5 million homes and businesses were without power. While it was too early to assess the full threat, Irene was blamed for six deaths.The hurricane stirred up 7-foot waves, and forecasters warned of storm-surge danger on the coasts of Virginia and Delaware, along the Jersey Shore and in New York Harbor and Long Island Sound. In the Northeast, drenched by rain this summer, the ground is already saturated, raising the risk of flooding.Irene made its official landfall just after first light near Cape Lookout, N.C., at the southern end of the Outer Banks, the ribbon of land that bows out into the Atlantic Ocean. Shorefront hotels and houses were lashed with waves. Two piers were destroyed, and at least one hospital was forced to run on generator power.Things are banging against the house, Leon Reasor said as he rode out the storm in the town of Buxton. I hope it doesn't get worse, but I know it will. I just hate hurricanes.By late evening, the storm had sustained winds of 80 mph, down from 100 mph on Friday. That made it a Category 1, the least threatening on a 1-to-5 scale, and barely stronger than a tropical storm. Its center passed North Carolina and was moving along the coast of Virginia. It also was picking up speed, moving at 16 mph.After the Outer Banks, the storm strafed Virginia with rain and strong wind. Hurricane force winds covered the Hampton Roads region, which is thick with inlets and rivers and floods easily, and chugged north toward Chesapeake Bay.

Maryland transportation officials closed the Chesapeake Bay bridge when wind gusts reached 82 mph. The bridge connects the capital of Annapolis and the rest of Maryland to the Eastern Shore. A tornado touched down in Sussex County in Delaware, damaging at least 15 homes.Shaped like a massive inverted comma, the storm had a thick northern flank that covered all of Delaware, almost all of Maryland and the eastern half of Virginia.The deaths included two children, an 11-year-old boy in Virginia killed when a tree crashed through his roof and a North Carolina child who died in a crash at an intersection where traffic lights were out.In addition, a North Carolina man was killed by a flying tree limb, a passenger died when a tree fell on in a car in Virginia, and a surfer in Florida was killed in heavy waves.It was the first hurricane to make landfall in the continental United States since 2008, and came almost six years to the day after Katrina ravaged New Orleans. Experts guessed that no other hurricane in American history had threatened as many people.At least 2.3 million were under orders to move to somewhere safer, although it was unclear how many obeyed or, in some cases, how they could.Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told 6,500 troops from all branches of the military to get ready to pitch in on relief work, and President Barack Obama visited the Federal Emergency Management Agency's command center in Washington and offered moral support.It's going to be a long 72 hours, he said,and obviously a lot of families are going to be affected.In New York, authorities began the herculean job of bringing the city to a halt. The subway began shutting down at noon, the first time the system was closed because of a natural disaster. It was expected to take as long as eight hours for all the trains to complete their runs and be taken out of service.On Wall Street, sandbags were placed around subway grates near the East River because of fear of flooding. Tarps were placed over other grates. Construction stopped throughout the city, and workers at the site of the World Trade Center dismantled a crane and secured equipment.While there were plenty of cabs on the street, the city was far quieter than on an average Saturday. In some of the busiest parts of Manhattan, it was possible to cross a major avenue without looking, and the waters of New York Harbor, which might normally be churning from boat traffic, were quiet before the storm.

The biggest utility, Consolidated Edison, considered cutting off power to 6,500 customers in lower Manhattan because it would make the eventual repairs easier. Mayor Michael Bloomberg also warned New Yorkers that elevators in public housing would be shut down, and elevators in some high-rises would quit working so people don't get trapped if the power goes out.The time to leave is right now, Bloomberg said at an outdoor news conference at Coney Island, his shirt soaked from rain.A day earlier, the city ordered evacuations for low-lying areas, including Battery Park City at the southern edge of Manhattan, Coney Island with its famous amusement park and the beachfront Rockaways in Queens.The five main New York-area airports — La Guardia, John F. Kennedy and Newark, plus two smaller ones — waved in their last arriving flights around noon. The Giants and Jets postponed their preseason NFL game, the Mets postponed two baseball games, and Broadway theaters were dark.New York has seen only a handful of hurricanes in the past 200 years. The Northeast is much more used to snowstorms — including the blizzard last December, when Bloomberg was criticized for a slow response.For all the concern, there were early signs that the storm might not be as bad as feared. Some forecasts had it making landfall as a Category 3 storm and perhaps reaching New York as a Category 2.Isabel got 10 inches from coming in the house, and this one ain't no Isabel, said Chuck Owen of Poquoson, Va., who has never abandoned his house to heed an evacuation order. He was referring to Hurricane Isabel, which chugged through in 2003.Still, Owen put his pickup truck on a small pyramid of cinder blocks to protect it from the storm tide, which had already begun surging through the saltwater marshes that stand between Poquoson and Chesapeake Bay.Airlines said 9,000 flights were canceled, including 3,000 on Saturday. Airlines declined to say how many passengers would be affected, but it could easily be millions because so many flights make connections on the East Coast. There were more than 10,000 cancellations during the blizzard last winter.American Airlines spokeswoman Andrea Huguely said it was not clear when flights would resume out of New York.The one thing about a hurricane is that you can prepare for it and you just have to adapt your plan based on how the storm travels, she said.It's basically an educated guessing game.Greyhound suspended bus service between Richmond, Va., and Boston. Amtrak canceled trains in the Northeast for Sunday.The power losses covered at least 1.5 million homes and businesses and were heavily concentrated in Virginia and North Carolina. Dominion Resources reported almost 800,000 customers without power in Virginia. In North Carolina, about 600,000 customers had no power with many of the outages in Wilmington and Wrightsville Beach, N.C. Nearly 55,000 homes and businesses in New Jersey are without power.
Irene roared across the Caribbean earlier this week, offering a devastating preview for the United States: power outages, dangerous floods and high winds that caused millions of dollars in damage.Samantha Gross reported from New York. Associated Press writers contributing to this report were Tim Reynolds and Christine Armario in Miami; Bruce Shipkowski in Surf City, N.J.; Geoff Mulvihill in Trenton, N.J.; Wayne Parry in Atlantic City, N.J.; Eric Tucker in Washington; Martha Waggoner in Raleigh, N.C.; Jessica Gresko in Ocean City, Md.; Mitch Weiss in Nags Head, N.C.; Alex Dominguez in Baltimore; Brock Vergakis in Virginia Beach, Va.; Samantha Bomkamp and Jonathan Fahey in New York; and Seth Borenstein in Washington.

Irene another test of capital's disaster prep
AP By BEN NUCKOLS, Associated Press – 9:35PM AUG 27,11

WASHINGTON – Already bruised by an earthquake that damaged two of its iconic structures, the nation's capital was watching and waiting Saturday for its first hurricane in more than a half-century, a storm that could test its ability to protect both national treasures and vulnerable residents.The worst of Hurricane Irene was supposed to hit Washington late Saturday night and early Sunday morning. Forecasts called for several inches of rain, wind gusts of up to 60 mph and possible flash flooding. The expectation led organizers to postpone the dedication of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial on the National Mall that was expected to draw up to 250,000 people.But beyond the tourist mecca of the Mall, the District of Columbia is a diverse city of 600,000 with a stark divide between the wealth of Northwest and the poverty of Southeast. And in the impoverished neighborhood of Anacostia, many weren't prepared for the storm — and weren't assured that the district government would do much to help them.The district is constantly on guard against terrorist attacks, but some residents say it remains ill-prepared for disasters. People leaving the city after this week's 5.8-magnitude earthquake — which caused cracks in the Washington Monument and millions of dollars in damage to the National Cathedral — snarled traffic for hours.

I don't think Washington is equipped for a big storm or evacuation or anything like that, Melvin Holloway, 61, a retired District of Columbia water department employee, said as he sipped from a can of Bud Light outside a convenience store Saturday morning. There's just no communication.Flooding is one problem. City leaders last fall recognized that the National Mall along the Potomac River was vulnerable during a massive storm and started a project to upgrade the system of levees along the river. Construction has started but will take several years to complete.Built on the banks of the Potomac on swampy ground, Washington has always been under threat of river flooding from a major storm. A U.S. Army Corps of Engineers review after 2005's devastating Hurricane Katrina concluded the city's flood-control system — built some 70 years ago — was inadequate.A map of potential flooding by the Federal Emergency Management Agency said museums such as the National Gallery of Art and federal buildings like the Commerce Department could be under as much as 10 feet of water if the current flood-control measures failed. That triggered planning for a better system.This week, the city struggled to distribute sandbags, with hundreds of cars lining up for up to two hours to collect them. By about 3 p.m., the city had nearly run out. It gave away about 13,000 bags over two days to a cross-section of the population. Many were homeowners looking to protect their basements.

They should have done it earlier, State Department employee Tina Harris, 36, said as she snaked toward the front of the line in her minivan early Saturday afternoon following a wait of about an hour and a half.At the same time, Harris, who lives in the Northeast quadrant of the city, which is not as vulnerable to flooding, said it was unrealistic for Washington to prepare adequately for a hurricane.We haven't had one before. We're not used to it,she said.The last named storm to cause damage in Washington was Isabel, which had weakened to a tropical storm when it hit in 2003. The last hurricane to hit was Hazel in 1954.As for where people live, despite being built on two rivers, the district has relatively little waterfront housing, although certain neighborhoods, including wealthy Georgetown and the Southwest Waterfront, are susceptible to flooding. The waterfront has mixed demographics, but there are public housing complexes and lower-income neighborhoods near the water.The district will be keeping its homeless shelters open for the duration of the storm, and had also set aside four places for displaced residents. By Saturday evening, those temporary shelters had yet to open.The poorer sections of the city are always a worry, said Councilmember Marion Barry, the former four-term mayor. He represents Ward 8 — the poorest of the city's wards — and said his constituents were accustomed to bearing the brunt of bad weather and other adversity.

Whenever there's an outage, we're going to be the first, Barry said. We're the first, and we get hit the hardest.Homes in Ward 8, however, are unlikely to be flooded by a surging Anacostia River, because the riverfront is occupied by a park and by Bolling Air Force Base.Much of official Washington has considered the possibility of a once-in-a-generation storm.For example, the monuments along the Tidal Basin — including the Jefferson Memorial and the new King Memorial — are designed to withstand flooding, said Bill Line, a National Park Service spokesman.
Line said he did not believe the Tidal Basin — a manmade inlet off the Potomac River walled off by a stone embankment — had ever overflowed its banks, although he conceded it was possible in an incredible storm surge. Much of the National Mall was created by a massive Army Corps of Engineers dredging project more than a century ago that altered the path of the Potomac River. There was not damage by Saturday night.The National Archives installed self-rising walls to protect the building after severe flooding in the basement damaged a newly opened theater, said spokeswoman Susan Cooper. The walls have worked in past storms, she said. The building doesn't keep its precious documents in the basement.Pepco, the utility serving the district and its Maryland suburbs, warned customers that Irene could bring destruction and that restoring service could take several days.Millicent West, the city's homeland security director, said officials from several agencies would be making the rounds in poor neighborhoods to make sure residents weren't neglected. Mayor Vincent Gray said that given forecasts showing the storm moving out by Sunday afternoon, he did not anticipate vulnerable residents being isolated for days in dangerous conditions.We hope that the duration of this will be relatively short, which means that people can get back out and get engaged in the normal patterns of life,Gray said.Ward 8 has a 25 percent unemployment rate and a 35 percent poverty rate. In Anacostia, some residents were making do with what they had, which wasn't much.I'm just about as ready as I can get, said Patricia Williams, a resident of Barry Farm, a sprawling, rundown public housing complex.I don't have no money to stock up on water and food.Associated Press writer Eric Tucker contributed to this report.Follow Ben Nuckols on Twitter at http://twitter.com/APBenNuckols

History of Hurricanes in New York City ContributorNetwork William Browning – Sat Aug 27, 1:18 pm ET

New York City is getting ready for a monster storm. The entire network of its famed subway system will be shut down in anticipation of Hurricane Irene. Parts of the city will be evacuated in low-lying areas to ensure elderly residents will be safe in case flooding occurs.In terms of hurricane preparedness, New York City isn't exactly on the cutting edge. However, because it is the largest city in the United States there must be precautions taken to guard its most vulnerable citizens. Perhaps the lessons learned from past New York City hurricane strikes have served as a lesson to current leaders.

1821 Hurricane

Hurricanes didn't get names until 1950. Back in early September 1821, a gigantic storm bore down on New York so fast it caught residents of the city unaware. Walls of water 13 feet high brought high water south of Canal Street. New York Magazine reported the only thing that saved the city from complete ruin was that the brunt of the storm surge came in at low tide.There were an unspecified number of deaths as records in 1821 were scarce. However, the areas decimated by the 1821 Hurricane were far less populated than they are today so the loss of life was kept relatively low by today's standards.

Hog Island Destroyed, 1893

An estimated Category 2 hurricane hit the area in 1893. The storm completely washed away Hog's Island, a resort part of New York City Aug. 22, 1893. No one in the modern age of New York had seen anything like it. Hog's Island was a mile long. A 30-foot storm surge of water completely washed it away literally overnight.The site where the hurricane made a direct hit is where JFK International Airport now sits. Should Hurricane Irene pack the same punch as the storm in 1893, imagine what might happen. Howling winds and heavy rain may not do well in low-lying areas of New York.

Long Island Express, 1938

The hurricane dubbed the Long Island Express hit eastern Long Island as a Category 3 hurricane on the afternoon of Sept. 21, 1938. It spared New York City for the most part as the strongest 180 mph winds stayed in sparsely populated areas of Long Island. The storm killed 10 people in New York City alone and 200 overall. Had the hurricane moved 75 miles farther west, New York City would have taken a direct hit.
Insurance adjusters are fearful of another hit like the Long Island Express. Now, a storm of that magnitude would cause damage over $10 billion. Other modern hurricanes have dumped lots of rain and wind on New York. Hurricane Belle grazed New York in August of 1976 causing heavy rain. Hurricane Gloria also pelted the region with monsoon rains in late September of 1985.As Hurricane Irene approaches, New York is doing what many residents in hurricane-prone areas do. They are hoping for the best and preparing for the worst.William Browning is a research librarian.Note: This article was written by a Yahoo! contributor.

Irene churns up coast, weaker but still ferocious AP By MITCH WEISS and SAMANTHA GROSS, Associated Press – AUG 27,11 5:30PM

NAGS HEAD, N.C. – Weaker but still menacing, Hurricane Irene knocked out power and piers in North Carolina, clobbered Virginia with wind and churned up the coast Saturday to confront cities more accustomed to snowstorms than tropical storms. New York City emptied its streets and subways and waited with an eerie quiet.With most of its transportation machinery shut down, the Eastern Seaboard spent the day nervously watching the storm's march across a swath of the nation inhabited by 65 million people. The hurricane had an enormous wingspan — 500 miles, its outer reaches stretching from the Carolinas to Cape Cod — and packed wind gusts of 115 mph.

Almost 900,000 homes and businesses were without power. While it was too early to assess the full threat, Irene was blamed for three deaths. A North Carolina man was struck by a flying tree limb, someone in Virginia was killed when a tree fell on a car, and an 11-year-old boy in Virginia died when a tree crashed through his apartment building.The hurricane stirred up 7-foot waves, and forecasters warned of storm-surge danger on the coasts of Virginia and Delaware, along the Jersey Shore and in New York Harbor and Long Island Sound. In the Northeast, drenched by rain this summer, the ground is already saturated, raising the risk of flooding.Irene made its official landfall just after first light near Cape Lookout, N.C., at the southern end of the Outer Banks, the ribbon of land that bows out into the Atlantic Ocean. Shorefront hotels and houses were lashed with waves. Two piers were destroyed, and at least one hospital was forced to run on generator power.Things are banging against the house, Leon Reasor said as he rode out the storm in the town of Buxton. I hope it doesn't get worse, but I know it will. I just hate hurricanes.By afternoon, the storm had weakened to sustained winds of 80 mph, down from 100 mph on Friday. That made it a Category 1, the least threatening on a 1-to-5 scale, and barely stronger than a tropical storm. Its center was positioned almost exactly where North Carolina meets Virginia at the Atlantic, and it was moving more slowly, at 13 mph, and back out toward the ocean.After the Outer Banks, the storm strafed Virginia with rain and strong wind. It covered the Hampton Roads region, which is thick with inlets and rivers and floods easily, and chugged north toward Chesapeake Bay. Shaped like a massive inverted comma, the storm had a thick northern flank that covered all of Delaware, almost all of Maryland and the eastern half of Virginia.

It was the first hurricane to make landfall in the continental United States since 2008, and came almost six years to the day after Katrina ravaged New Orleans. Experts guessed that no other hurricane in American history had threatened as many people.At least 2.3 million were under orders to move to somewhere safer, although it was unclear how many obeyed or, in some cases, how they could.Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told 6,500 troops from all branches of the military to get ready to pitch in on relief work, and President Barack Obama visited the Federal Emergency Management Agency's command center in Washington and offered moral support.It's going to be a long 72 hours,he said, and obviously a lot of families are going to be affected.In New York, authorities began the herculean job of bringing the city to a halt. The subway began shutting down at noon, the first time the system was closed because of a natural disaster. It was expected to take as long as eight hours for all the trains to complete their runs and be taken out of service.On Wall Street, sandbags were placed around subway grates near the East River because of fear of flooding. Tarps were placed over other grates. Construction stopped throughout the city, and workers at the site of the World Trade Center dismantled a crane and secured equipment.While there were plenty of cabs on the street, the city was far quieter than on an average Saturday. In some of the busiest parts of Manhattan, it was possible to cross a major avenue without looking, and the waters of New York Harbor, which might normally be churning from boat traffic, were quiet before the storm.The biggest utility, Consolidated Edison, considered cutting off power to 6,500 customers in lower Manhattan because it would make the eventual repairs easier. Mayor Michael Bloomberg also warned New Yorkers that elevators in public housing would be shut down, and elevators in some high-rises would quit working so people don't get trapped if the power goes out.The time to leave is right now, Bloomberg said at an outdoor news conference at Coney Island, his shirt soaked from rain.A day earlier, the city ordered evacuations for low-lying areas, including Battery Park City at the southern edge of Manhattan, Coney Island with its famous amusement park and the beachfront Rockaways in Queens.The five main New York-area airports — La Guardia, John F. Kennedy and Newark, plus two smaller ones — waved in their last arriving flights around noon. The Giants and Jets postponed their preseason NFL game, the Mets postponed two baseball games, and Broadway theaters were dark.

New York has seen only a handful of hurricanes in the past 200 years. The Northeast is much more used to snowstorms — including the blizzard last December, when Bloomberg was criticized for a slow response.For all the concern, there were early signs that the storm might not be as bad as feared. Some forecasts had it making landfall as a Category 3 storm and perhaps reaching New York as a Category 2.Isabel got 10 inches from coming in the house, and this one ain't no Isabel, said Chuck Owen of Poquoson, Va., who has never abandoned his house to heed an evacuation order. He was referring to Hurricane Isabel, which chugged through in 2003.Still, Owen put his pickup truck on a small pyramid of cinder blocks to protect it from the storm tide, which had already begun surging through the saltwater marshes that stand between Poquoson and Chesapeake Bay.Airlines said 9,000 flights were canceled, including 3,000 on Saturday. Airlines declined to say how many passengers would be affected, but it could easily be millions because so many flights make connections on the East Coast. There were more than 10,000 cancellations during the blizzard last winter.American Airlines spokeswoman Andrea Huguely said it was not clear when flights would resume out of New York.The one thing about a hurricane is that you can prepare for it and you just have to adapt your plan based on how the storm travels, she said. It's basically an educated guessing game.Greyhound suspended bus service between Richmond, Va., and Boston. Amtrak canceled trains in the Northeast for Sunday.The power losses were heavily concentrated in Virginia and North Carolina, where Irene charged ashore early Saturday morning. Dominion Resources reported almost 600,000 customers without power and Progress Energy 260,000, with much of the outages in Wilmington and Wrightsville Beach, N.C.Irene roared across the Caribbean earlier this week, offering a devastating preview for the United States: power outages, dangerous floods and high winds that caused millions of dollars in damage.
Samantha Gross reported from New York. Associated Press writers contributing to this report were Tim Reynolds and Christine Armario in Miami; Bruce Shipkowski in Surf City, N.J.; Geoff Mulvihill in Trenton, N.J.; Wayne Parry in Atlantic City, N.J.; Eric Tucker in Washington; Martha Waggoner in Raleigh, N.C.; Jessica Gresko in Ocean City, Md.; Mitch Weiss in Nags Head, N.C.; Alex Dominguez in Baltimore; Brock Vergakis in Virginia Beach, Va.; Samantha Bomkamp and Jonathan Fahey in New York; and Seth Borenstein in Washington.

Storm surge may force power cut to south New York City Reuters By Jeanine Prezioso and David Sheppard – AUG 27,11 5:40PM

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Utility Consolidated Edison said it does not plan a widespread shutdown of New York City's power ahead of Hurricane Irene, although it may impose precautionary power cuts early on Sunday in low-lying areas of downtown Manhattan, where flooding threats are higher.A spokesman for New York's largest utility said around 6,000 customers south of the Brooklyn Bridge were most likely to be affected if the category 1 hurricane brings a serious storm surge.The decision will be made between 2 a.m. and 10 a.m. EDT (0600-1400 GMT) on Sunday, the company said, based on the likely storm surge and the time the storm eventually hits the United States' most densely populated city.ConEd will shut down 10 miles of steam generation lines out of about 110 miles affecting about 50 customers, John Miksad, senior vice president of electric operations, said during a conference call.ConEd is expecting an additional 400 to 450 crew members to come in from across the country to assist with the storm response.The utility said the storm does not pose a major threat to the gas system.(Reporting by Jeanine Prezioso and David Sheppard; editing by Vicki Allen)

POWER OUTAGE

REVELATION 16:10-11
10 And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast; and his kingdom was full of darkness; and they gnawed their tongues for pain,
11 And blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and repented not of their deeds.

Irene knocks out power to nearly 200,000 homes
AP By CHRIS KAHN - AP Energy Writer | AP – AUG 27,11 11:25AM

Nearly 200,000 homes in North Carolina are without power as Hurricane Irene slams into the state.Winds of up to 80 miles per hour whipped ashore Saturday morning, ripping power lines from poles and snapping trees in half.Hardest hit were Wilmington and Wrightsville Beach, N.C., where Progress Energy reports 190,000 customers without power. Most of those customers are residences.We expect those numbers to increase, Progress spokeswoman Julia Milstead said.Duke Energy also reports about 2,300 customers without power, mostly in Durham, N.C. SCE&G, which serves most of South Carolina, says it restored power to 2,500 customers last night.

Power companies have called in several hundred workers from surrounding states to tend to the disaster. Crews are rushing out between bands in the hurricane, when the wind and rain eases. They're looking for the worst damage first at towering transmission lines where an outage could put an entire county in the dark.Much more damage is expected as Irene travels up the Eastern Seaboard.An unusually large number of people may be affected by Irene. That's because it is forecast to stay just offshore_and thus retain much of its power_as it inches up the coast from North Carolina to New England. When a hurricane hits land, it quickly loses steam.The entire Eastern Seaboard lies in the storm's projected path, with flooding and damage from winds likely. North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut and Rhode Island have declared emergencies. New York City issued evacuation orders for people in low-lying areas.

Irene, a bit weaker, begins its destructive run AP By MICHAEL BIESECKER and JENNIFER PELTZ, Associated Press – AUG 27,11

MOREHEAD CITY, N.C. – Hurricane Irene opened its assault on the Eastern Seaboard on Saturday by lashing the North Carolina coast with wind topping 90 mph and pounding shoreline homes with waves. Farther north, authorities readied a massive shutdown of trains and airports, with 2 million people ordered out of the way.The center of the storm passed over North Carolina's Outer Banks for its official landfall just after 7:30 a.m. EDT. The hurricane's vast reach traced the East Coast from Myrtle Beach, S.C., to just below Cape Cod.Irene weakened slightly, with sustained winds down to 85 mph from about 100 a day earlier, making it a Category 1, the least threatening on the scale. Parts of North Carolina recorded gusts as high as 94, however.Hurricane-force winds arrived near Jacksonville, N.C., at first light, and wind-whipped rain lashed the resort town of Nags Head. Tall waves covered the beach, and the surf pushed as high as the backs of some of the houses and hotels fronting the strand.At least two piers on the Outer Banks were wiped out, the roof of a car dealership was ripped away, and a hospital in Morehead City that was running on generators. In all, about 240,000 people were without power on the East Coast.I'm not taking any chances, said Susan Kinchen, who showed up at a shelter at a North Carolina high school with her daughter and 5-month-old granddaughter. She said they felt unsafe in their trailer. Kinchen, from Louisiana, said she was reminded of how Hurricane Katrina peeled the roof of her trailer there almost exactly six years ago, on Aug. 29, 2005.In the Northeast, unaccustomed to tropical weather of any strength, authorities made plans to bring the basic structures of travel grinding to a halt. The New York City subway, the largest in the United States, was making its last runs at noon, and all five area airports were accepting only a few final hours' worth of flights.

The New York transit system carries 5 million people on weekdays, fewer on weekends, and has never been shut for weather. Transit systems in New Jersey and Philadelphia also announced plans to shut down. Washington declared a state of emergency, days after it had evacuated for an earthquake.New York City ordered 300,000 people to leave low-lying areas, including the Battery Park City neighborhood at the southern tip of Manhattan, the beachfront Rockaways in Queens and Coney Island in Brooklyn. But it was not clear how many people would get out, or how they would do it.How can I get out of Coney Island? said Abe Feinstein, 82, who has lived for half a century on the eighth floor of a building overlooking the boardwalk.What am I going to do? Run with this walker? Authorities in New York said they would not arrest people who chose to stay, but Mayor Michael Bloomberg warned on Friday:If you don't follow this, people may die.In all, evacuation orders covered about 2.3 million people, including 1 million in New Jersey, 315,000 in Maryland, 300,000 in North Carolina, 200,000 in Virginia and 100,000 in Delaware. Authorities and experts said it was probably the most people ever threatened by a single storm in the United States.

Forecasters said the core of Irene would roll up the mid-Atlantic coast Saturday night and over southern New England on Sunday.North of the Outer Banks, the storm pounded the Hampton Roads region of southeast Virginia, a jagged network of inlets and rivers that floods easily. Emergency officials there were less worried about the wind and more about storm surge, the high waves that accompany a hurricane. Gas stations there were low on fuel, and grocery stores scrambled to keep water and bread on the shelves.In Delaware, Gov. Jack Markell ordered an evacuation of coastal areas on the peninsula that the state shares with Maryland and Virginia. In Atlantic City, N.J., all 11 casinos announced they would shut down for only the third time since gambling became legal there 33 years ago.In Baltimore's Fells Point, one of the city's oldest waterfront neighborhoods, people filled sandbags and placed them at building entrances. A few miles away at the Port of Baltimore, vehicles and cranes continued to unload huge cargo ships that were rushing to offload and get away from the storm.A steady rain fell on the boardwalk at Ocean City, Md., where a small amusement park was shut down and darkened — including a ride called the Hurricane. Businesses were boarded up, many painted with messages like Irene don't be mean! Charlie Koetzle, 55, who has lived in Ocean City for a decade, came to the boardwalk in swim trunks and flip-flops to look at the sea. While his neighbors and most everyone else had evacuated, Koetzle said he told authorities he wasn't leaving. To ride out the storm, he had stocked up with soda, roast beef, peanut butter, tuna, nine packs of cigarettes and a detective novel.Of the storm, he said: I always wanted to see one.Jennifer Peltz reported from New York. Associated Press writers contributing to this report were Tim Reynolds and Christine Armario in Miami; Bruce Shipkowski in Surf City, N.J.; Geoff Mulvihill in Trenton, N.J.; Wayne Parry in Atlantic City, N.J.; Eric Tucker in Washington; Martha Waggoner in Raleigh, N.C.; Mitch Weiss in Nags Head, N.C.; Alex Dominguez in Baltimore; Brock Vergakis in Virginia Beach, Va.; Jonathan Fahey in New York; and Seth Borenstein in Washington.

Hurricane Irene's Path: How Do Forecasters Predict the Cone of Uncertainty? Time.com By MATT PECKHAM – AUG 27,11 9:40AM

You've seen Hurricane Irene's path predicted on maps: lime green states, electric blue water and a white upside-down teardrop running smack into North Carolina. But hurricanes are fickle and go where they will, so how do weather forecasters nail them down? Actually, they don't, which is part of the problem when you're wrestling mathematically with a monster cyclone hundreds of miles in size. All forecasters can do is estimate with increasing uncertainty as they project forward through time where a hurricane might go. That's what the white teardrop - sometimes called a Cone of Uncertainty - is all about in these National Hurricane Center maps. Don't mistake it for something like Irene's area of effect, it's actually a zone representing the range of possible paths along which Hurricane Irene's eye (the relatively calm, cloudless point at a hurricane's center) could move. Think of it as a visual representation of forecasters' margin of error.How do forecasters determine the Cone of Uncertainty? According to CNN meteorologist Dave Hennen, they run simulations on some of the fastest computers in the world,which in turn crunch data assembled from radar, satellite and weather balloon scans, reports from ships in the vicinity of the hurricane, airplanes (hot-rod hunters that actually fly into the center of the storm) and weather stations.

Literally billions of calculations are done with very complex equations to help model the atmosphere into the future,Hennen says.More than 20 different kinds of models are run - some being more reliable and complex than others - to help forecast the track and intensity of the storm.Forecast tracks are issued every six hours and take into account the latest data, resulting in the multicolored spaghetti lines you sometimes see on TV, detailing the hurricane's possible paths, which in turn help to generate the Cone of Uncertainty.According to Hennen, Irene's center location 12 hours out is averaging 36 miles in either direction, while at 48 hours out, you're looking at a whopping 100 miles either way.This is why meteorologists and emergency managers will constantly preach not to look at the line on the forecast track, but to look at the cone,Hennen says. If you are inside that area, you could end up in the direct path of the storm.The site to watch: The National Hurricane Center, specifically the Coastal Watches/Warnings and 5-Day Forecast Cone for Storm Center view (or if you want the interactive Google Maps version, the Coastal Watches/Warnings and 5-Day Track Forecast Cone).Matt Peckham is a reporter at TIME. Find him on Twitter at @mattpeckham or on Facebook. You can also continue the discussion on TIME's Facebook page and on Twitter at @TIME

Typhoon-triggered landslides kill 6 in Philippines
AP – AUG 27,11 8:30AM

MANILA, Philippines – A slow-moving typhoon made landfall in the Philippines on Saturday, drenching most of the north and triggering landslides that killed five children and a man digging for gold, officials said.Typhoon Nanmadol buried a hillside house before dawn, killing a 6-year-old girl and her 5-year-old brother in Pangasinan province's San Fabian township, civil defense officials said.The young siblings were buried in the mud and other debris for more than two hours before rescuers recovered their bodies, said Milchito Santos, regional civil defense chief for the northwestern region of the main Philippine island of Luzon.In the northern mountain resort city of Baguio, a garbage dump's concrete wall collapsed, burying three shanties under tons of garbage and killing three siblings aged 10 to 15 who were swept about 300 yards (meters) downhill, Mayor Mauricio Domogan said.

Residents near the dump site told rescuers that several others were still buried hours later, including the children's grandmother, Domogan said.Domogan said a man who was digging for gold in the outskirts of the city was killed by mud and rocks that cascaded from a hillside.At least four other people were confirmed missing, including a fisherman from Catanduanes province, about 220 miles (350 kilometers) east of the capital, Manila, who failed to return home Thursday during stormy weather related to the typhoon, and another fisherman from La Union province, north of Manila.Two men were swept away Saturday by strong river currents in Ilocos Sur province north of La Union, officials said.Meteorologists said Nanmadol hit land near Cagayan province's Gonzaga township on the northeastern tip of Luzon around 6 a.m. Saturday (2200 GMT Friday). Its maximum winds had weakened 12 hours later to 103 mph (166 kph) with gusts of up to 124 mph (200 kph).About 200 people who evacuated a coastal village in Gonzaga because storm surges flooded their community were advised later Saturday it was safe to return home after the storm eased, said Norma Talosig, the region's civil defense director.The typhoon was moving north, toward southern Taiwan, at just 4 mph (7 kph).In Taiwan, officials warned ships passing through the Bashi Channel south of the island to stay alert.The U.S. Embassy said the visit to Manila by the U.S. Navy's John C. Stennis Carrier Strike Group, originally scheduled for this weekend, had been postponed because of the bad weather.

It said all tours of the aircraft carrier, as well as the reception on board, had been canceled.Domestic airlines also canceled more than a dozen flights to areas affected by the typhoon in the northern and central Philippines.Forecasters said the typhoon's cloud band was 370 miles (600 kilometers) in diameter, and that rains would continue to drench most of northern Luzon Island and generate gale-force winds that would result in rough seas in the northern and central Philippines over the weekend.Rivers in Cagayan and nearby Isabela province have swelled and the waters have flowed over at least six bridges, halting or slowing traffic in several towns, Talosig said.Civil Defense Administrator Benito Ramos reported scattered landslides in the mountainous Cordillera region and power outages in Cagayan province and nearby Isabela province.He warned of more landslides and flash floods in the Cagayan Valley region because the Cordillera mountains to the west and the Sierra Madre to the east were already saturated with rainwater.Workers were clearing landslides that blocked roads in Cordillera, including the picturesque zigzag to Baguio, officials said. There were no immediate reports of injuries.Taiwan's Central Weather Bureau said Nanmadol may not make landfall there but was expected to move north along the island's eastern coast Monday and Tuesday. It said the typhoon would bring torrential rains and heavy winds to Taiwan.

2 million ordered to leave as Irene takes aim AP By MICHAEL BIESECKER and JENNIFER PELTZ, Associated Press – FRI AUG 26,11 6:30PM

MOREHEAD CITY, N.C. – Whipping up trouble before ever reaching land, Hurricane Irene zeroed in Friday for a catastrophic run up the Eastern Seaboard. More than 2 million people were told to move to safer places, and New York City ordered its entire network of subways shut down for the first time because of a natural disaster.As the storm's outermost bands of wind and rain began to lash the Outer Banks of North Carolina, authorities in points farther north begged people to get out of harm's way. The hurricane lost some strength but still packed winds of almost 100 mph, and officials in the Northeast, not used to tropical weather, feared it could wreak devastation.Don't wait. Don't delay, said President Barack Obama, who decided to cut short his summer vacation by a day and return to Washington. I cannot stress this highly enough: If you are in the projected path of this hurricane, you have to take precautions now.Hurricane warnings were issued from North Carolina to New York, and watches were posted farther north, on the islands of Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard off Massachusetts. Evacuation orders covered at least 2.3 million people, including 1 million in New Jersey, 315,000 in Maryland, 300,000 in North Carolina, 200,000 in Virginia and 100,000 in Delaware.This is probably the largest number of people that have been threatened by a single hurricane in the United States, said Jay Baker, a geography professor at Florida State University.New York City ordered more than 300,000 people who live in flood-prone areas to leave, including Battery Park City at the southern tip of Manhattan, Coney Island and the beachfront Rockaways. But it was not clear how many would do it, how they would get out or where they would go. Most New Yorkers don't have a car.

On top of that, the city said it would shut down the subways and buses at noon Saturday, only a few hours after the first rain is expected to fall. The transit system carries about 5 million people on an average weekday, fewer on weekends. It has been shut down several times before, including during a transit workers' strike in 2005 and after the Sept. 11 attacks a decade ago, but never for weather.Mayor Michael Bloomberg said there was little authorities could do to force people to leave.We do not have the manpower to go door-to-door and drag people out of their homes,he said.Nobody's going to get fined. Nobody's going to go to jail. But if you don't follow this, people may die.Shelters were opening Friday afternoon, and the city was placed under its first hurricane warning since 1985.Transit systems in New Jersey and Philadelphia also announced plans to shut down, and Washington declared a state of emergency. Boisterous New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie demanded people get the hell off the beach in Asbury Park and said: You're done. Do not waste any more time working on your tan.Hundreds of thousands of airline passengers were grounded for the weekend. JetBlue Airways said it was scrubbing about 880 flights between Saturday and Monday, most to and from hub airports in New York and Boston. Other airlines said they were waiting to be more certain about Irene's path before announcing more cancellations.Thousands of people were already without power. In Charleston, S.C., several people had to be rescued after a tree fell on their car.

Defying the orders, hardy holdouts in North Carolina put plywood on windows, gathered last-minute supplies and tied down boats. More than half the people who live on two remote islands, Hatteras and Ocracoke, had ignored orders to leave, and as time to change their minds ran short, officials ordered dozens of body bags. The last ferry from Ocracoke was set to leave at 4 p.m. Friday.I anticipate we're going to have people floating on the streets, and I don't want to leave them lying there, said Richard Marlin, fire chief for one of the seven villages on Hatteras. The Coast Guard will either be pulling people off their roofs like in Katrina or we'll be scraping them out of their yards.Officially, Irene was expected to make landfall Saturday near Morehead City, on the southern end of the Outer Banks, the barrier island chain. But long before the eye crossed the coastline, the blustery winds and intermittent rains were already raking the coast.National Hurricane Center meteorologist David Zelinsky said earlier Friday that he expected the storm to arrive as a Category 2 or 3 hurricane. Later in the day, other forecasts showed it would strike most of the coast as a Category 1. The scale runs from 1, barely stronger than a tropical storm, to a monstrous 5. On Friday afternoon, Irene was a Category 2.Regardless of how fierce the storm is when it makes landfall, the coast of North Carolina was expected to get winds of more than 100 mph and waves perhaps as high as 11 feet, Zelinsky said.This is a really large hurricane and it is dangerous,he said.Whether it is a Category 2 or 3 at landfall, the effects are still going to be strong. I would encourage people to take it seriously.Officer Edward Mann was driving down the narrow streets of Nags Head looking for cars in driveways, a telltale sign of people planning to ride out the storm against all advice.Bucky Domanski, 71, was working in his garage when Mann walked in. He told the officer he planned to stay. Mann handed Domanski a piece of paper with details about the county's evacuation order. It warned that hurricane force winds would flood the roads and there might not be power or water until well after the storm.You understand we can't help you during the storm, Mann said.I understand,Domanski replied.

After the Outer Banks, the next target for Irene was the Hampton Roads region of southeast Virginia, a jagged network of inlets and rivers that floods easily. Emergency officials have said the region is more threatened by storm surge, the high waves that accompany a storm, than wind. Gas stations there were low on fuel Friday, and grocery stores scrambled to keep water and bread on the shelves.In Delaware, Gov. Jack Markell ordered an evacuation of coastal areas.We could be open tonight for business, but there's a very fine line between doing the right thing and putting our staff at risk, said Alex Heidenberger, owner of Mango Mike's restaurant in Bethany Beach, who expects to lose $40,000 to $50,000 in business. It's not so much we're worried about the storm coming tonight, but we want to give them a chance to get out of town and get their affairs in order.Officials at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington said they were speeding the transfer of their last remaining patients to the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md. The transfer had been planned for Sunday.In Baltimore's Fells Point neighborhood, one of the city's oldest waterfront neighborhoods, people filled sandbags and placed them at the entrances to buildings. A few miles away at the Port of Baltimore, vehicles and cranes continued to unload huge cargo ships that were rushing to offload and get away from the storm.

In New York, the Mets postponed games scheduled for Saturday and Sunday with the visiting Atlanta Braves, and the Jets and Giants moved their preseason NFL game up to 2 p.m. Saturday from 7 p.m.And in Atlantic City, N.J., all 11 casinos announced plans to shut down Friday, only the third time that has happened in the 33-year history of legalized gambling in that state.I like gambling, but you don't play with this, Pearson Callender said as he waited for a Greyhound bus out of town. People are saying this is an act of God. I just need to get home to be with my family.
Jennifer Peltz reported from New York. Associated Press writers contributing to this report were Bruce Shipkowski in Surf City, N.J.; Geoff Mulvihill in Trenton, N.J.; Wayne Perry in Atlantic City, N.J.; Eric Tucker in Washington; Martha Waggoner in Raleigh, N.C.; Mitch Weiss in Nags Head, N.C.; Alex Dominguez in Baltimore; Brock Vergakis in Virginia Beach, Va.; Jonathan Fahey in New York; and Seth Borenstein in Washington.

Irene evacuations, subway shutdown ordered in NYC AP By MICHAEL VIRTANEN and SAMANTHA GROSS, Associated Press – 6:15PM FRI AUG 26,11

NEW YORK – More than 300,000 people were told Friday to evacuate and New York ordered buses, planes and its entire subway system shut down as Hurricane Irene marched up the East Coast.It was the first time part of the nation's largest city was evacuated. And never before has the entire mass transit system been shuttered because of a storm.Despite not knowing how the city would react, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said he was confident people would get out of the storm's way.Waiting until the last minute is not a smart thing to do, Bloomberg said. This is life-threatening.Irene was expected to make landfall in North Carolina on Saturday, then roll along the East Coast before hitting near Manhattan on Sunday.A hurricane warning was issued for the city Friday afternoon and forecasters said if the storm stays on its current path, skyscraper windows could shatter and debris will be tossed around. Streets in southern tip of the city could be under a few feet of water. Bloomberg warned people to stay inside when Irene does hit.Several New York landmarks were under the evacuation order, including the Battery Park City area, where tourists catch ferries to the Statue of Liberty, and Coney Island, famed for its boardwalk and amusement park. The beachfront community of Rockaways and other neighborhoods around the city were also told to be out by Saturday at 5 p.m.I would think that the vast bulk will comply, Bloomberg said of the evacuation order. Unfortunately, there's a handful who will not comply until it's too late. And at that point in time, you can really get stuck.Eighty-two-year-old Abe Feinstein, who has lived in Coney Island since the early 1960s, said he wasn't going anywhere.How can I get out of Coney Island? What am I going to do? Run with this walker? Feinstein said.

The retiree lives on the eighth floor of a building that overlooks the boardwalk; his daughter lives on the third floor. Feinstein watched Hurricane Gloria in 1985 from an apartment down the street.I think I have nothing to worry about, he said. I've been through bad weather before. It's just not going to be a problem for us.
Other initial signs indicated no sense of urgency. By early Friday evening, two evacuation shelters in the Coney Island area were still empty. Nearly 100 shelters were set to open, with a capacity of 71,000 people. The city said it could open more if needed, but officials believed many people would stay with friends or family.The city began evacuating nursing homes and five hospitals Thursday. Getting the rest of the hundreds of thousands of people out will be particularly difficult. In all, New York has about 1.6 million people in Manhattan and about 6.8 million in the city's other four boroughs.Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials said they can't run the transit system once sustained winds reach 39 mph, and they need eight hours to move trains and equipment to safety. The subway system won't reopen until at least Monday.Pumps will have to remove water from flooded subway stations. Even on a dry day, about 200 pump rooms remove between 13 million to 15 million gallons of water from the subway system because water seeps into the tunnels, which run from just below street level to 180 feet underground.Bridges could also be closed as the storm approaches, clogging traffic in an already congested city.The city faced its first hurricane since 1985 when Gloria hit Long Island as a Category 2 storm with winds gusts of up to 100 mph. Irene is expected to be a Category 1, with winds of at least 74 mph, when it hits New York.The mayor warned residents not to be fooled by the sunny weather Friday and said police officers would use loudspeakers on patrol vehicles to spread the word about the evacuation.We do not have the manpower to go door-to-door and drag people out of their homes, he said.Nobody's going to get fined. Nobody's going to go to jail. But if you don't follow this, people might die.

Construction was stopping. Workers were securing scaffolding and crews at the site of the World Trade Center dismantled a crane. Bloomberg said there would be no affect on the Sept. 11 memorial opening. Concerts and other events were canceled.In a city where many residents don't own a car, Bloomberg said he still believed officials could handle any overflow of the transit system.Nobody expects you to go walk 10 miles, he said. You'll get to the shelter, it's our responsibility and we think that we can handle it.The evacuation posed a logistical challenge. For those with cars, parking is available at the city's evacuation centers. From there, each family will be assigned to a shelter. Buses will run from the evacuation centers to the shelters.In the Queens community of the Rockaways, more than 111,000 people live on a barrier peninsula connected to the city by two bridges and to Long Island to the west. There is no subway service there.The MTA has never before halted its entire system — which carries about 5 million passengers on an average weekday — before a storm, though it was seriously hobbled by an August 2007 rainstorm that disabled or delayed every one of the city's subway lines. The last planned shutdown of the entire transit system was during a 2005 strike.In the last 200 years, New York has seen only a few significant hurricanes. In September of 1821, a hurricane raised tides by 13 feet in an hour and flooded all of Manhattan south of Canal Street, the southernmost tip of the city. The area now includes Wall Street and the World Trade Center memorial.In 1938, a storm dubbed the Long Island Express came ashore about 75 miles east of the city on neighboring Long Island and then hit New England, killing 700 people and leaving 63,000 homeless.Virtanen reported from Albany, N.Y.Samantha Gross can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/samanthagross