Weakening Irene heading to Canada

No longer a hurricane, Irene spent the last of its fury and sloshed its way into Canada early today, inflicting relatively little damage to New York but leaving a trail of treacherous flooding and millions without power along America’s east coast.

The east coast began surveying the damage yesterday, up to €7bn (€4.8bn)by one private estimate. For many the danger had not passed - rivers and creeks turned into raging torrents tumbling with tree limbs and parts of buildings in northern New England and upstate New York.

“This is not over,” President Barack Obama said from the Rose Garden.

The storm left behind a stunned US east coast. At least 21 people died, severe flooding was widespread and 4.5 million homes and businesses lost power.

As waves continued to pound the shores east and north of America’s biggest city, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg lifted the evacuation order for 370,000 people in low-lying areas.

Irene sent seawater surging into lower Manhattan’s streets, but the city appeared to escape the worst fears of urban disaster – vast power outages, hurricane-shattered skyscraper windows and severe flooding.

Officials said New York would start its subways again today and the New York Stock Exchange was ready to open for trading.

New England residents were feeling the brunt of the diminished but still-dangerous storm, which will cause flooding and winds that could topple many towering trees anchored in soil already saturated by earlier heavy rains. The storm was expected to move over eastern Canada by Sunday night.

In Massachusetts, the National Guard had to help people evacuate. The ski resort town of Wilmington, Vermont, was flooded, but nobody could get to it because both state roads leading there were underwater.

“This is the worst I’ve ever seen in Vermont,” said Mike O’Neil, the state emergency management director.

The National Hurricane Centre said last night that Irene was maintaining 50mph maximum sustained winds as it neared the US-Canada border. Tropical storm warnings were issued for the south coast of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.

Forecasters said the storm, stripped of hurricane rank hours earlier, was moving north-northeast at 26 mph. It was located 20 miles south of St Johnsbury, Vermont.

Chris Fogarty, director of the Canadian Hurricane Centre, warned of flooding and wind damage in eastern Canada. He said the heaviest rainfall was expected in Quebec as high winds and pounding surf were more of a concern in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. As of Sunday afternoon, at least 180,000 customers in Quebec had lost power.

As the eye of the sprawling storm blew through America’s largest city and Long Island to the east, it pushed an Atlantic storm surge toward New York. Briny water from New York Harbour submerged parts of a promenade at the base of the island of Manhattan. A foot of water rushed over the wall of a marina in front of the New York Mercantile Exchange, where gold and oil are traded.

The huge storm had threatened 65 million people up and down the Atlantic coast, estimated as the largest number of Americans ever affected by a single storm.

In an early estimate, consulting firm Kinetic Analysis figured total losses from the storm at $7bn dollars. The storm will take a bite out of Labour Day tourist business from the Outer Banks to the Jersey Shore to Cape Cod.