Irene evacuation order in New York to be lifted Sunday
This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said evacuation orders issued in anticipation of Hurricane Irene would be lifted Sunday afternoon, but there was no word on when the city’s subways, buses and commuter railroads would be rolling again.
At his first briefing since Irene arrived in the city Sunday, Bloomberg said he had no reports of deaths from the storm, which was downgraded from to a tropical storm as it spun onto the sands of Coney Island at about 9 a.m. EDT. He also offered some good news: Crime plummeted during the storm. Police said they made 45 arrests overnight, compared with an average of 345 on a typical Saturday night in August.
In addition, the looming construction cranes around Ground Zero in Lower Manhattan held firm, and the storm wasn’t enough to disrupt the events planned for the site on Sept. 11 to mark the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.
In Staten Island, Bloomberg said, 61 adults and three children were plucked from rising waters by firefighters in rescue boats. “These people were trapped in five feet of water and faced a very scary situation,” the mayor said.
The big question was whether people would have a way of getting back to work Monday morning. “It’s going to be tough,” Bloomberg said. “I think it’s fair to say you’re going to have a tough commute in the morning, and if you’re pleasantly surprised, that’s great.”
Bridges and tunnels were open, but Jay Walder, chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, indicated that it would be awhile before buses and trains were back in business. That seems to especially hold true for the Metro North train lines, which connect midtown Manhattan with suburbs to the north.
“It’s quite clear … that the Metro North railroad has sustained real damage,” Walder said. “We have serious flooding on all three lines of Metro North. We have power outages across the lines. Given some of the conditions up there, this may continue for some time.”
As for getting buses back on the streets, Bloomberg noted that city officials still had to clear hundreds of downed trees and branches from roads and that bus drivers needed to find a way to get to work before they could begin driving others. Subways can’t resume until tracks and tunnels are checked for flooding or damage.
Despite the relatively subdued impact of the storm here, officials said they had no regrets about the shutdown of the city and the evacuations of people from low-lying areas. Some might call it overkill, Bloomberg said, but he noted that there had been no reports of deaths caused by Irene in the city.
“Nobody likes to shut down the economy of the city. Nobody likes to inconvenience people. But human lives are much more important,” he said.
RELATED:
Long Island beach residents refuse to leave
Hurricane Irene snarls New York highways, tunnels, sidewalks
Despite damage, Mid-Atlantic residents say it could have been worse
-- Tina Susman in New York
