Hurricane Irene heads for New York

Millions of Americans across the East Coast prepared themselves as Hurricane Irene pounded North Carolina yesterday, on course for New York, New Jersey and states nearby.
New York City ordered unprecedented evacuations and transit shutdowns as states from the Carolinas through to Maine declared emergencies due to Irene, whose nearly 600 mile (960 km) width guaranteed a stormy weekend for tens of millions of people.
With winds of 90 miles per hour, Irene weakened slightly to a Category One hurricane on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale by early on Saturday but it remained a dangerous storm.
At 11am UAE time, the centre of Irene was about 60 miles south of Cape Lookout, North Carolina, the US National Hurricane Centre said.

"Irene is expected to remain near the threshold of Category One and Category Two strength," the centre said. "Some weakening is expected after Irene reaches the coast of North Carolina but Irene is forecast to remain a hurricane as it moves along the mid-Atlantic coast on Sunday."
Airlines cancelled nearly 7000 flights over the weekend and all three major New York area airports were due to close to incoming flights at 7pm UAE time on Saturday.
“Due to the impact of Hurricane Irene, the Airport Authority has suspended flights to and from New York's JFK Airport,” Emirates Airline said on its website. All six flights scheduled for departure yesterday and today have been cancelled.
“Emirates will continue to monitor the situation in New York and encourages passengers to check the website for further updates - these will be provided as soon as they are available,” the statement continued.

Similarly, Etihad Airways announced in a statement that it had cancelled services to and from New York (flights EY100 and EY101).

“Passengers ticketed for travel to or from New York on 27 and 28 August may rebook on alternate flights from 29 August, when operations are expected to resume,” the airline said.

“Etihad will operate the larger A340-600 aircraft on the route, upgrading from A340-500 aircraft, to provide additional capacity. Etihad is providing accommodation in Abu Dhabi for passengers currently in transit to New York.”

President Barack Obama said the unusually large storm could be "extremely dangerous and costly" for a nation that still recalls the destruction in 2005 from Hurricane Katrina, which swamped New Orleans, killed up to 1,800 people and caused $80 billion (48 billion pounds) in damage.