Irene was the first hurricane to make landfall in the continental United States since 2008, and came almost six years to the day after Katrina ravaged New Orleans on Aug. 29, 2005.
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capture from a NASA satellite image at 2:50 p.m. EDT on August 27, 2011,
shows Hurricane Irene over the eastern United States |
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| Rough surf caused by Hurricane Irene off the coast of Long Beach Island, N.J., Sunday,
Aug. 28, 2011. Rivers and creeks surged toward potentially record levels late Sunday as Irene, just the third hurricane to come ashore in New Jersey in the past 200 years, charged to the north and left behind a mess — and a sense that the state got off relatively easy. (AP Photo/Rich Schultz) |
The storm that had been Hurricane Irene crossed into Canada overnight but wasn't yet through with the U.S., where flood waters threatened Vermont towns and New Yorkers feared a commuting nightmare as their transit system, shut down ahead of the storm, was slowly restored.
The storm left millions without power across much of the Eastern Seaboard, left more than 20 dead and forced airlines to cancel about 9,000 flights. It never became the big-city nightmare forecasters and public officials had warned about, but it still had the ability to surprise.
Many of the worst effects arose from rains that fell inland, not the highly anticipated storm surge along the coasts. Residents of Pennsylvania and New Jersey nervously watched waters rise as hours' worth of rain funneled into rivers and creeks. Normally narrow ribbons of water turned into raging torrents in Vermont and upstate New York late Sunday, tumbling with tree limbs, cars and parts of bridges.
One of the Hurricane Irene impacts is Billy Stinson cottage. The cottage, built in 1903, was one of the first vacation cottages built on Albemarle Sound in Nags Head. Stinson has owned the home, which is listed in the National Register of Historic Places, since 1963. "We were pretending, just for a moment, that the cottage was still behind us and we were just sitting there watching the sunset," said Erin afterward.
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Billy Stinson, left, comforts his daughter Erin Stinson as they sit on the steps where their cottage once stood before it was destroyed by Hurricane Irene in Nags Head, N.C., on Aug. 28. (@Scott Olson)
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| Waves crash against a partially damaged pier in Ocean City, Md., Sunday, Aug. 28, 2011, after Hurricane Irene churned along the Maryland coast overnight. Authorities in Ocean City said that there were no reports of major damage. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky) |
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A person searches for anyone who may be occupying the building as raging flood waters from
Tropical Storm Irene cross Route 100, closing the main road to traffic in Waitsfield, Vt., Sunday, Aug. 28, 2011. (AP Photo/Sandy Macys) |
