Hurricane Irene made first landfall on Saturday morning, 27th August, coming onshore west of Cape Lookout, North Carolina, 50 miles west of Cape Hatteras and 120 miles south of Norfolk, Virginia. Cat modellers at RMS report maximum sustained winds of 85 mph, equivalent to a Category 1 status, hitting the shore weaker than previously forecast. Irene then moved north across North Carolina, deviating slightly east as it passed over the Delaware and Maryland coast.

Irene made a second landfall near Little Egg Inlet on the New Jersey coast, 10 miles east-southeast of Atlantic City, New Jersey, and 100 miles south-southwest of New York City, at 1040 UTC, Sunday August 28. Maximum sustained winds were 75mph, equivalent to low category 1 status, indicating that Irene had continued its slow weakening trend, and was a bit weaker at landfall than had been forecast. Irene continued to move north-northeast as it passed over New York City, New York and western Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire. Irene was then downgraded to a post-tropical storm as it passed over the US and Canadian border.

Hurricane Irene’s damage is likely to be characterised more by the amount of inland flooding, storm surge, and treefall than by direct wind damage and flooding is still an ongoing concern for many states in the northeast. Irene’s most damaging winds spared areas of coastal Virginia, Maryland, and New Jersey, but her large windfield spread tropical storm force winds as far inland as Washington, Baltimore, Richmond, and into Central Pennsylvania.

The most common impact from winds was treefall, with thousands of uprooted and downed trees from North Carolina, up the Mid-Atlantic, and throughout the Northeast. Additionally, there have been several reports of strewn debris, siding and roofing materials blown off houses, and damage to automobiles. Among the hardest hit areas were Chesapeake Bay and the Outer Banks of North Carolina where Irene initially made landfall.

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