Irene traveled up the East Coast of the U.S. on August 26, 27 and 28, moving at bicycle speeds, sometimes as slowly as 16 miles per hour. The category 1 hurricane, later downgraded to a tropical storm as it approached New York City, made history for the numbers of people in its path—some 65 million—more than for the ferocity of its damage. Adopting a “better safe than sorry” attitude, public officials enforced mandatory evacuations of low-lying areas and mass transit shutdowns in numerous metropolitan areas, including New York. Parts of the Big Apple looked peacefully post-apocalyptic by Sunday, with deserted streets and empty subway stations serving as stark reminders of this historic weather event—the first tropical cyclone to make landfall in New York since the turn of the last century. Here are photographs taken by Scientific American staffers and readers of extraordinary Irene and its impact.

»View the photos of Irene's Impact

5 Comments

1. 1. Chinatopcat 11:36 PM 8/29/11

   I've said this for years. Home's in America need to be made of more concrete and steel. Wooden stick frame home blow down and then get rebuilt the same way. Time after time. Here in China we have an infrastructure that is built of just that. Concrete and steel. We are due to get hit with typhoon Nanmadol tonight. Everyone will stay home to be safe and emerge in the morning. Every year we have typhoons in this part of the world and damage to the infrastructure is minimal.

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2. 2. rjtoegel 11:00 AM 9/1/11

   To answer Chinatopcat, the main problem is not what material is used in construction but how they are constructed. Buildings based on squares will not be as strong as buildings based on triangles. Also buildings are constructed as cheaply as possible and still fit the local building codes. Where I live (NJ) the chance of getting a hurricane is not great, so making every building hurricane proof is not cost effective. Same goes for earthquakes since we rarely get one here (I've felt two in my lifetime and I'm 60).
   Actual damage during this and similar storms stems from poor planning: constructing buildings in natural flood plains, wide, non-absorbing parking lots with no way to handle the runoff by drainage and/or local waterways, and insufficient space for tree roots. Trees go down and take power lines with them. Unfortunately, many cities on the east coast are over one hundred years old, built when these problems didn't exist or weren't expected since these storms are rare compared to other parts of the world. The money needed to rebuild the infrastructure now would be astronomical.
   New York City is unique because it has many low lying areas so a combination of hurricane, the moon being in the right position and a good southerly wind can make the water rise enough to flood the subways. It hasn't happened since the right combination of factors hasn't occurred...yet. The rivers that flow through New York City don't flood much since they are trickles compared to what they were when the Ice Age was winding down so nobody worries about it.
   All-in-all, I think the East Coast did pretty well during this storm. The main problem as an individual homeowner is our dependence on electricity since without it, refrigerators, sump pumps and some heating systems are not functional. That's why I have a generator. We keep the trees pruned and checked. Also, I'm not in a flood zone which is why my wife and I chose this house over others. Unfortunately, not everybody was as lucky.

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3. 3. geodude 06:07 PM 9/1/11

   Give me a break. Photo compositor must be from NYNY. Who cares. That city is a pit ranking up there with Las Vegas. I was hoping Irene would do everybody a favor and would wash it away <;^)
   
   Seriously . . . where are the photos of the other 99% of the impacted East Coast. Get real.

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4. 4. thevillagegeek in reply to geodude 02:12 PM 9/5/11

   "where are the photos of the other 99% of the impacted East Coast"
   
   Like the one above the text that says: "...Louisburg, N.C."?

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5. 5. tex78132 06:27 PM 10/15/11

   Oh my goodness! It rained on me, it rained on me! I'm a victim! It's never happened before. It must be Bush"s fault.

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