New York Evacuating Because Of Irene?

New York is in a State of Emergency. Make sure you stay locked in to #IFWT for updates. Bloomberg has already prepared some of the highest flood threat areas for Hurricane Irene like Battery Park City and Coney Island. Check out the full story on New York’s preparations after the jump.

@ShottaDru

With Hurricane Irene threatening a full-force hit, New York City on Thursday ordered the evacuation of nursing homes and senior centers in low-lying areas and made plans for the possible shutdown of the entire transit system.

With Hurricane Irene threatening a full-force hit, New York City on Thursday ordered the evacuation of nursing homes and senior centers in low-lying areas and made plans for the possible shutdown of the entire transit system.

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said the city was ready with “evacuation contingencies” for low-lying areas like Coney Island in Brooklyn, Battery Park City in Lower Manhattan and parts of Staten Island and the Rockaways in Queens — areas that are home to 250,000 people. He said the city was ordering nursing homes in those areas to evacuate residents beginning at 8 a.m. Friday unless they receive special permission from state and city health officials, among them the city’s health commissioner, Dr. Thomas A. Farley, who, the mayor noted, was chairman of the community health sciences department at Tulane University when Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in 2005.

At a City Hall briefing on Thursday evening, the mayor said the five hospitals in the low-lying areas were reducing their caseloads and canceling elective surgeries on Friday to be ready for emergencies over the weekend. One, Coney Island Hospital, is to begin moving patients to vacant beds in other parts of the city on Friday, Mr. Bloomberg said.

He said he would decide by 8 a.m. on Saturday whether to order a “general evacuation” of the low-lying areas.

He also said he was revoking permits for events in the city on Sunday and in the low-lying areas on Saturday. The Sunday cancellation apparently included a concert on Governors Island by the Dave Matthews Band. A statement on the band’s Web site said people with tickets for the Sunday performance should attend the Friday or Saturday performance. But the Web site said to check for updates on Friday.

The mayor said 300 street fairs over the weekend “would have to be curtailed” to keep streets clear for hurricane-related transportation — ambulances carrying patients to nursing homes or hospitals on higher ground, buses and city-owned trucks moving to where they would be ready for duty once the hurricane had swept by.

Mr. Bloomberg said that people should stay out of parks because high winds could bring down trees. “And incidentally,” he said, “it’s a good idea to stay out of your own backyard if you have trees there.”

The mayor cautioned that forecasts were not always accurate and that the hurricane, a sprawling storm that is still more than 1,000 miles away, could become weaker.

“We’re talking about something that is a long time away in meteorological terms,” he said, “so what we have to do is assume the worst, prepare for that and hope for the best.”

That seemed to be the official mantra from South Jersey to coastal Connecticut on Thursday. In East Hampton, N.Y., crews removed sidewalk benches so they would not blow away if Hurricane Irene howled through. In Long Beach, N.Y., maintenance crews used a different kind of defensive maneuver, building up berms that they hoped would block the waves. They also handed out sandbags.

In Southampton, N.Y., flashlights and batteries were sold out at one hardware store. There was a run on duct tape and plastic sheeting that could be placed over picture windows and sliding-glass doors, and there were lines at supermarkets and gasoline stations as people stocked up on provisions— or filled up for a getaway.

Boaters hunted for safe harbors. Steve Novack, the vice commodore of the Sag Harbor Yacht Club on Long Island, said all boats longer than 40 feet were to be removed from the dock. Next door at the Breakwater Yacht Club, where Mr. Novack is the administrator, the plan was to move all the vessels used to teach sailing onto land, but not until Friday.

In New Jersey, Gov. Chris Christie told shore-area residents hoping to sit out the storm that “it is not the smart thing to do.” He said people who were thinking about a weekend along the coast should think again.

“Do not go,” he said.

Mr. Christie also urged people on barrier islands to leave. “Right now I’m asking people to do this voluntarily,” he said. “I am actively considering a mandatory evacuation, but I’m not there yet.”

Officials in other areas echoed his concern about areas closest to the Atlantic Ocean. On Long Island, the Islip town supervisor, Phil Nolan, called for a voluntary evacuation of Fire Island “to avoid a rush of people as the storm nears Long Island.”

DN