Hurricane Irene the Overview by Marcella Marquez

Hurricane Irene the first major hurricane of the 2011 season formed August 20, 2011 from a well defined tropical wave. This wave came from Africa and formed Irene in the tropical Atlantic. As it slowly began to move west with the Trade Winds and it got to the Windward Islands it became more organized. The next day Irene made landfall near Puerto Rico at hurricane strength but at a weak category 1 (SSHS), nonetheless Irene caused significant property damage. The hurricane was closely monitored north of the Hispaniola as it began to intensify; it skirted the coast causing strong winds and heavy showers. Irene quickly became a category 3 while passing through the Bahamas and later curving northward to Florida where it left extensive amounts of damage. The Hurricane made landfall in North Carolina on August 27 and then began to hit most of the states in the east seaboard of the U.S. Overall Irene has damaged 15 states (North Carolina, Vermont, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Florida, Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Virginia, and Washington) 13 of which President Obama declared in state of emergency. As it move northward it affected at least 55 million people, killed at least 44, flooded a $ 750 million tobacco crop in N.C., and left about 5.12 million customers in 13 states and D.C. without power (according to the U.S. energy department). It is said that the cost of Hurricane Irene is somewhere between $7 billion and $ 10 billion. According to the New York Times it will be one of the 10 costliest catastrophes in the nation’s history.