hurricane irene

Cleanup efforts have begun in communities that were devastated by Hurricane Irene over the weekend. Although trucks and supplies from the Federal Emergency Management Agency are en route, access to some areas has been cut off by floodwaters that washed out or damaged roads and bridges. “Irene was gonna land somewhere. We’re not Manhattan, our small streams quickly became big rivers,” Vermont Gov.

One of Hurricane Irene‘s unfortunate structural victims this weekend was the 141-year-old Bartonsville Covered Bridge in Bartonsville, Vermont.

Before weakening to a tropical storm, the first hurricane of the season hit the Eastern seaboard with torrential rains, strong winds and floods. Hurricane Irene made landfall on Saturday in North Carolina, moved northward along the coast then slammed into Little Egg Inlet, N.J., as a Category 1 storm. Despite predictions, Irene then lost steam as it lumbered toward New England.

The Weather Channel has never really needed a delay button before, but it may want to look into getting one now. During a live broadcast from Hurricane Irene-ravaged Virginia on Saturday, reporter Eric Fisher was unexpectedly upstaged when a dude dressed in swim trunks ran behind him, pulled his trunks down and gave “weather front” a whole new meaning.

Whenever natural disasters strike, news stations often send out a few poor saps to report from the scene. With Hurricane Irene, we typically saw wind-whipped, rain-soaked correspondents in various locations talking about the storm’s fury. But if there’s an award for Most Deserving of Hazard Pay, it has to go to Washington, DC Fox affiliate WTTG’s Tucker Barnes.

Over a million people in North Carolina and Virginia are currently without power after Hurricane Irene came ashore on Saturday, and other states further north are bracing for impact on Sunday.

Much of eastern United States is getting ready for the arrival of Hurricane Irene. More than 50 million people live in the projected path of the Category 2 storm, which is expected to make landfall along North Carolina’s Outer Banks on Friday.