At Hurricane force winds extend up to 70 miles from the centre and tropical storm winds extend outward to miles. On the islands of Grand Turk and Providenciales, there are signs that flood waters are receding.
A hurricane warning is in effect for the central and northwestern Bahamas. Prognosis The National Hurricane Centre advises that Irene is moving toward the north northwest near 13 mph and that general motion is expected to continue through the night.
Maximum sustained winds are near mph with higher gusts. Further strengthening is possible throughout today and tonight. A turn toward the north is expected by early Friday. On its current forecast track, the core of the hurricane will continue to move over the northwestern Bahamas today. Hurricane force winds are currently spreading over the northwestern Bahamas. Hurricane or tropical force winds are still occurring over portions of the central Bahamas but should diminish later today.
Trees were down throughout eastern North Carolina and thousands were left without electricity. Ocean and Sound overwash created numerous breaches of Highway 12 along the Outer Banks. Figure 1.
Track of Hurricane Irene, August 20 through 29, Source: National Hurricane Center. Figure 2. Figure 4. Note the large white area of over 17 inches over Beaufort, Craven and Pamlico Counties.
Figure 5. Evolution and Impacts. Hurricane Irene evolved from a tropical wave that exited the African coast on August 15, With a favorable environment ahead of the wave, a Tropical Depression formed on August 20 as the wave approached the Lesser Antilles. On August 21, the surface center reformed closer to the deepest convection, as an anticyclone aloft provided supportive outflow over the cyclone.
With the improved structure, as well as light wind shear and high sea surface temperatures, Irene was forecast to strengthen to near hurricane force prior to landfall in Hispaniola. Over the subsequent day August 22 , while passing near the island of Saint Croix in the U. Virgin Islands, Irene moved toward Puerto Rico, more northward than initially expected, where it underwent a considerable increase in strength and organization.
Hours later, Irene moved ashore, approaching from the southeast at landfall near Punta Santiago, Puerto Rico, with estimated sustained winds of 70 mph. Despite the storm's interaction with land, radar imagery showed a ragged eye-like feature, and Doppler radar data indicated wind speeds in excess of hurricane force.
Just after its initial landfall, Irene was accordingly upgraded to a Category 1 hurricane, the first of the Atlantic hurricane season. Encouragingly, Vermonters have improved ways to predict stream flow in the past 10 years; they have steered risky development out of flood plains , and they continue to re-vegetate fragile streambanks and wetlands — replicating nature's well-worn ways of coping. The storm's sheer size blanketed most of the region's watersheds.
Valleys quickly funneled rain runoff into larger valleys, obliterating evacuation routes. Residents in a dozen towns were isolated for days, relying on water, food and medicine delivered by National Guard helicopters. In some rain-swollen streams, floodwater equaled or topped historic records set by the epic flooding of November Damage from Irene was in many instances worse, due to construction that took place near rivers later in the 20th century.
A conspicuous example: The Winooski River and its load of debris coursed through the Waterbury complex of state facilities , battering down walls and displacing 1, workers. All but Grand Isle and Essex counties were declared federal disaster areas. Damage was estimated in the hundreds of millions.
More photos: Tropical Storm Irene slams Vermont with heavy rains, flash flooding. Help poured in from out of state: Road crews, power-line workers and six more National Guard units. With no ocean coastline, Vermont might have seemed an unlikely candidate to be devastated by a hurricane five years ago, and to most, Irene was an entirely forgettable storm. Its memory is eclipsed for many by Sandy, which followed a year later. Irene was actually only a hurricane for a brief stretch over distant North Carolina.
Its winds dwindled once it made landfall. But while winds and storm surge make hurricanes so telegenic, what made this one so destructive was rain. And residents of the Green Mountain State, crisscrossed by rivers and streams, have a lot to worry about in the future. More than 2, roads, homes and businesses, bridges including historic covered bridges and a half dozen railroad lines were destroyed or damaged, according to the National Oceanic Administration Agency NOAA.
After Irene swept through, Vermont set about understanding the devastation and working toward resilience. Some municipalities have bought out homeowners in the worst devastation zones, in order to prevent future damage.
Roads and bridges have been rebuilt to withstand future floods. One of the main takeaways from Irene was that development had changed the landscape around rivers. By making them straighter and easier to build around, it meant that heavy rains turned them from placid waterways into chutes of destruction.
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