Weather | featured news

With Hurricane Irene pointed at the nation's most populated city, expected to arrive by late Saturday, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg wants coastal residents to get moving. Now. City officials made the unprecedented decision to shut down the mass transit system starting at noon Saturday and to evacuate by 5 p.m. more than 250,000 New Yorkers who live along the southern coastal rim of the city. That includes residents of Manhattan's Battery Park City, vast parts of Staten Island, Brooklyn's Howard and Manhattan beaches and everyone in the beachfront communities of Rockaway.

New York became the latest state to declare a state of emergency in a scramble to get ahead of Hurricane Irene as the storm prepares to make a potentially deadly drive up the East Coast. Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo's declaration Thursday follows those of Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley. North Carolina Gov. Beverly Perdue - whose state is projected to take the first hit Saturday when Hurricane Irene makes landfall in the U.S. - limited her declaration to counties east of Interstate 95.

Virginia officials warned residents on Thursday to prepare for massive power outages, flooding and damage from Hurricane Irene comparable to that of Hurricane Isabel, which knocked out power to about 2 million people as it tore through the state in 2003.

Don't play the hero. That's the message from FEMA as officials warn that Hurricane Irene could prompt widespread evacuation orders up and down the East Coast. Residents have been urged to heed those orders, for their safety and the safety of emergency workers.

With Hurricane Irene approaching, evacuations began on a tiny barrier island off North Carolina early Wednesday in a test of whether people in the crosshairs of the first serious hurricane along the East Coast in years would heed orders to get out of the way....

A strong earthquake rattled the East Coast on Tuesday, sending tremors as far as Canada, damaging well-known buildings in the nation's capital and sending scared office workers into the streets.

Projections have the storm, with potential wind speeds of 131 m.p.h., landing on the coast of North Carolina by this weekend.

Authorities posted warnings for Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic as forecasters predicted Tropical Storm Irene would strengthen into a hurricane Monday.

Taking a road trip soon? You may already be using Google Maps to get directions, but starting today, the service may help you decide what to pack, too.
My Post colleague Jason Samenow reported that Google has added a weather layer to Maps, giving users the option to check the current weather, cloud patterns and forecasts for the next four days.

A storm swept through an open air music festival in eastern Belgium on Thursday killing at least three people and injuring more than 70 others, an official said.