Pedestrians pass sandbags used to control possible floods at downtown Manhattan in New York, Friday. — Reuters New York mayor orders 250,000 to evacuate MOREHEAD CITY — Hurricane Irene battered the North Carolina coast early Saturday, wreaking havoc as it began a potentially catastrophic run up the US East Coast. Almost 250,000 people were told to flee and New York City ordered the nation's biggest subway system shut down for the first time because of a natural disaster. The National Hurricane Center in Miami said the enormous storm had weakened somewhat, but winds topping 80 mph began lashing the shoreline near Jacksonville, North Carolina, around dawn. Gusts as high as 94 mph were recorded. Irene could be packing top sustained winds of 90 mph when it officially makes landfall. The winds had weakened from 100 mph overnight, but forecasters warned Irene would remain a hurricane as it moves up the Atlantic coast, and then toward the New York City area and New England. As the storm's outer bands of wind and rain lashed the North Carolina coast, knocking out power in places, authorities farther north begged people to get out of harm's way. The storm's center was about 55 km south of Cape Lookout on North Carolina's Outer Banks early Saturday and lumbering north-northeastward at 14 mph. Wind and rain knocked out power to more than 91,000 customers along the North Carolina coast. Hurricane warnings were issued from North Carolina to New York and further north to the islands of Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard off Massachusetts. Evacuation orders covered at least 2.3 million people, including 1 million in New Jersey, 315,000 in Maryland, 300,000 in North Carolina, 200,000 in Virginia and 100,000 in Delaware.— APBlow to economyNEW YORK — As Hurricane Irene roars toward the US East Coast — home to some of America's most densely populated cities and costliest waterfront real estate — experts are forecasting a multibillion-dollar disaster. The economic impact of the hurricane largely will depend on factors that include the storm's size, where it makes landfall, and the speed at which it's moving when it hits the coast. But experts already are forecasting billions of dollars in losses. “It's probably going to be very damaging,” said Roger Pielke, a University of Colorado professor and fellow of the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences. A computer model of Irene's potential impact puts the estimated damage at $4.7 billion, according to research by Pielke and catastrophe-insurance provider ICAT. That figure, which came from analyzing 27 comparable storms dating back to 1913, includes destruction of infrastructure caused by high winds and flooding. The number doesn't factor in the added impact of lost sales from shuttered restaurants, canceled flights and boarded-up stores — all of which could add billions of dollars to the fallout. Statistician Nate Silver, who crunched the data for his New York Times blog, puts the worst-case estimate at $35 billion — half of New York City's annual budget — if Irene were to pass directly over Manhattan with 100 mile-per-hour winds. While the odds of a direct hit on the city are slim, a Category 2 storm passing within 80 km of downtown would cause $10 billion in damage, according to Silver's model. The impact is expected to be significant for the nation as a whole because the major metro areas that will be affected, including New York City, Philadelphia, Boston, Baltimore and Washington, account for 16 percent of national economic output and 14 percent of total employment, according to Moody's economist Ryan Sweet.
