New York Says Adieu to Irene

Irene’s worst attack on New York is over as she moves up the northeast US coast

Empire State Building, NEW YORK—Satellite images of Irene show the brunt of the storm has passed in New York, flooding Battery Park and other downtown areas. Unless the storm happens to circle back around, New York has seen its last of Irene. Students of The King’s College living in Ludlow and Clark St. residences were evacuated yesterday just before the subway system closed, leaving a stranded student or two to walk to Herald Towers and Vogue residences to spend the night.

Students from King’s male-only housing, Ludlow and Clark St. buildings, reported long lines forming at Residence Life Director Katrina Blank’s apartment in the Herald Towers yesterday, where evacuated male students came to check in before staying the night in Herald Towers apartments. After many male students had already checked in at Blank’s apartment, King’s was forced to move some incoming male students temporarily to the school’s Student Lounge in the Empire State Building while Herald Towers and King’s staff debated whether the evacuated students should be allowed in for the night.

King’s asked its students to remain inside for most of yesterday, starting mid-afternoon when the rain and winds began. Although sad about having to spend the majority of their first free weekend (after a weekend of NSO events last week) indoors, King’s students made the best of it with movie marathons, a special worship meeting put on by Tent, baking parties, and visits to each other’s rooms. Some students from the House of Dietrich Bonhoeffer stayed with house president Greg Baumann’s family in New Jersey, while others made the trek up to Herald Towers and Vogue residences with as little as half an hour’s notice, just barely in time to catch the last uptown subway train.

Despite weather.com statistics of millions left without power and some areas left with several feet of flooding, areas further into Manhattan experienced only moderate showers and winds yesterday morning and evening. Showers and winds abated in the early afternoon for several hours around Herald Square area, and people and cabs could still be seen on the surrounding streets in the area throughout the storm’s progress.

Mayor Bloomberg set a 9pm curfew for the city to ensure the safety of its inhabitants last night, and streets are just now starting to see a more regular flow of pedestrian traffic.