30th Aug 11
US counts the cost of Irene as flooding impacts north east
by Adam Richards
Waterlogged: Much of New England remains underwater after Hurricane Irene
Waterlogged: Much of New England remains underwater after Hurricane Irene
Tropical Storm Irene may not have caused as much damage to Manhattan as feared, but it caused widespread flooding across New England and upstate New York on Monday morning.
Twenty-nine people in eight states have been confirmed dead, many as a result of drowning, as estimates of property damage alone reached $13bn (£8bn). Over 500,000 homes and businesses in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire and Vermont were left with no power, as rivers in the states burst their banks.
A further 285,000 homes and businesses across eastern Canada lost electricity after being hit by Irene as it departed the US, bringing the overall amount of people having to cope without power to over 5.5 million people. President Barack Obama has said that the storm’s impact will be felt for some time and that the recovery effort will take for weeks or longer.
Millions of New York City commuters faced packed trains and delays upon returning to work yesterday morning, as thousands of locals who had heeded the warnings and evacuated the city continued to return home. However, it was those upstate who felt the full impact of the storm, with several small towns in the Catskill Mountains completely submerged by water as rivers and streams flooded.
The outer suburbs, already flooded on the back of the wettest August since records began, were unable to cope with an additional foot of rain which Irene dumped on them as it headed north on Sunday night. In the town of Windham, houses in low-lying areas were completely plunged under water, and fire chief Michael Scarey said that the town of around 1,600 inhabitants had been “wiped out”.
Meanwhile, Vermont battled what was thought to be the worst flooding the state has endured in 84 years. A 21-year-old woman was killed and over 50,000 people were left without electricity. The state’s governor, Peter Shumlin, said that the seven inches of rain caused damage which amounted to a “full-blown catastrophe”. He said that they prepared for the worst and got the worst in the centre and south of the state, describing the infrastructure damage as “extraordinary”.
The state capital, Montpelier, was deluged while the small town of Battleboro on the Connecticut River was also badly hit. Other than two major motorways, every road in Vermont was closed at some point on Sunday due to water cover, while there were major concerns that Montpelier could be flooded again on Monday as engineers needed to release water from an upstream dam on the swollen Winooski River.
Experts have been trying to analyse just how much damage has been caused to infrastructure, homes and businesses along the eastern seaboard. Estimates from the Kinetic Analysis Corporation have put a figure of $13bn (£8bn) on it. However, others said the overall total – taking lost business such as the 11,000 cancelled flights into account – said could be double that.
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