LATEST: At Least 19 Killed in Irene Related Incidents

NEWS & VIEWS > FEATURES

As Irene threatens parts of New England late Sunday evening, most of the Jersey shore area is spared by the storm. Afternoon winds bring down power lines in Somers Point.

By Jeff Schwachter

Add Comment | Comments: 0 | Posted Aug. 28, 2011

ATLANTIC CITY — Hurricane Irene still poses a threat to parts of New England Sunday evening, according to experts.

While most Americans in the path of the Category 1 storm are either cleaning up downed trees or assessing the damage left in the hurricane's wake, several families have been tragically affected.

At least 19 deaths over the past 24 hours, from Florida up to Connecticut, have been blamed on Irene-related incidents, according to national officials.

"People have lost lives, I don't think you can say we dodged a bullet," said Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) head Craig Fugate.

Officials expect the death toll to rise as more incidents are reported, including the most recent one, in Harrisburg, Pa., where a man died while camping with friends after a tree reportedly fell on his tent.

Up to four million customers in affected areas are without electricity, and more power outages were being reported Sunday afternoon.

While the Atlantic City area is being assessed for damage, officials say only minimal damage has been done in the area due to Irene, a major weather event in New Jersey, which carried with it tornado warnings and high chances of flooding.

While NJ Transit will resume moderate service on Monday, it will take time before public transportation returns to normal. As of Sunday evening, there were still downed trees along certain train lines in the state and more of the NJT infrastructure was being assessed for any damage.

Likewise, some affected area restaurants will need to take time to re-stock kitchens, take down any plywood and attend to any damages or downed trees. For those businesses without power, it may be longer before they can re-open.

While hundreds of roads in New Jersey remain closed, there are likely thousands of closures across the state's in Hurricane Irene's path. In New York, and most of New Jersey, tunnels and bridges were re-opened. The mandatory evacuation for Atlantic County was rescinded earlier on Sunday.

N.J. Gov. Chris Christie, who was highly visible and active over the weekend, urging and re-urging residents in evacuation areas to leave right up until Irene was nearly knockin' on their doors, made an appearance on NBC's Today Show and Meet the Press on Sunday.

"I am particularly concerned about downed power lines,” Christie said on the Today show. "There is no, no safe place to be outside right now in New Jersey, between downed power lines, flooding. You need to stay in your home."

Although hundreds of thousands of New Jersey's power customers were still without power as of Sunday evening, most in the Atlantic City region had electricity with little if any disturbances of service experienced during the storm.

For Joe Kelly, of Somers Point, Sunday morning brought with it a sense of relief as no flooding occurred (despite the heavy saturation due to recent rains), no trees fell on his home (where he has lived since 1968), and he hadn't witnessed or heard of much damage in his neighborhood.

"I looked out my window and [my neighbor's] tree was swaying," Kelly said, around 2:30pm on Sunday, just as an Irene-related wind storm hit Somers Point. "And they I heard this 'bang!' and I looked out the window and the tree was down.

"All this in the past 10 minutes. Nothing last night or this morning, but this afternoon!"

Heavy winds did hit down in Somers Point this afternoon, taking down power and cable lines. On Dogwood Avenue near the Garden State Parkway entrance, a live power line was hanging down just over the sidewalk. Fire and police crews were quickly on the scene as many people watched what was going on or assessed their property's damage after the "second storm."

"It just knocked over our plant here," said Kelly, pointing at a terra cotta planter broken into pieces after being knocked down by the winds.

"It could have been a lot worse. We lucked out."

Also Sunday, just about all of Atlantic City's 11 casinos issued statements stating that they would re-open at noon Monday.

This was only the third time in 33 years of legalized gaming in New Jersey that the casinos were shut down.

As soon as all of the damage is assessed in the region, and it may take another day or two in some areas, say officials, there will certainly be reports and estimates about how much money Irene cost the Jersey shore during this usually very busy summer weekend.

And unlike the clamoring for news over the past 48 hours or so, with millions of Americans glued to the Weather Channel or their smart phones as Hurricane Irene Fever gripped the East Coast, with the current state of the economy and the related challenges facing Atlantic City and its casinos, it is not going to be news that anybody wants to hear.

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