Is this hurricane about to hit New York?

Only a few of the images:

http://www.livescience.com/15746-photos ... irene.html
In Photos: Hurricane Irene
Credit: NASA

The Rainbow Before the Storm
Credit: James S. Siler
This breathtaking shot, taken the morning of Aug. 24 in Boynton Beach, Fla., shows a rainstorm's looming clouds over a rainbow, with a faint double rainbow overhead.

Looming Storm Clouds
Credit: Simon Rimmington
Dania Beach, a city in Broward County, Fla., also saw fearsome thunderstorm clouds approaching on the morning of Aug. 25.

(This thing's huge!)

No Eye?
Credit: NASA
At the time this NASA satellite image was taken on Aug. 25 at 8:15 a.m. ET (1215 UTC), Hurricane Irene was still packing a punch with 115 mph winds. Although the eye has disappeared from this NOAA GOES-East satellite imagery, the storm is not weakening and appears to be going through an eyewall replacement cycle. The National Hurricane Center is still predicting Irene to reach category 4 status within the next day. Hurricane and tropical storm watches are in effect for much of the Carolina coastline.

Projected Path
Credit: NOAA | National Weather Service
This National Weather Service graphic, based on National Hurricane Center data, predicts Hurricane Irene's path from Aug. 25 to Aug. 30 along the U.S. East Coast. With surface wind speeds equal or exceeding 58 mph (93 kph), state and National Weather Service officials have begun urging New Jersey and North Carolina residents to prepare for Hurricane Irene now. Even New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is taking the hurricane's threat seriously, advising New Yorkers to stay alert, as the storm could come near New York City on Aug. 28.

NASA Goddard Photo and Video's photostream on Flickr

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/obs ... A_facebook
Map of Flood Risks and Hurricane Evacuation Zones Wakes Up NYC Residents [UPDATE]
By Katherine Harmon | August 26, 2011

Some 50 million people along the eastern seaboard are likely to be affected by the storm, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency​ (FEMA) is poised with water, meals and cots and blankets for millions.

For all of their harbor-side advantages, low-lying coastal cities, such as New York, are particularly vulnerable when it comes to major storms, which are predicted to become more powerful with climate change. New York State has initiated long-term plans to build sea walls and discourage waterside development as a means to decrease future high-water threats, but these preparations are still years and decades away. In the meantime, the city is poised to undergo a complete shutdown of mass transit systems and has already evacuated some hospitals and nursing homes. In the event that Irene makes landfall in the city as a category 2 or greater, millions of residents could face flooding on Sunday.

An interactive map of New York City evacuation zones (courtesy of WNYC) shows the areas at risk of flooding in the event of various hurricane categories.

http://www.weather.com/weather/hurrican ... 2011-08-26
Hurricane Irene Brings Rain, Heavy Seas to Coast

http://www.alternet.org/story/152184/as ... _katrina_/
As Hurricane Irene Approaches Land, What Lessons Have We Forgotten From Hurricane Katrina?
Hurricane Katrina hit nearly 6 years ago. As the Northeast readies for a major storm, who's being left out of the disaster preparation?
August 26, 2011

But now it's six years on and I live in another big city with a population that doesn't have cars ( 55 percent of New Yorkers, as opposed to 27 percent of New Orleanians ). Evacuation isn't easy even if our billionaire mayor declares it mandatory, and with a citywide shutdown in public transit, New York will grind to a halt.

New Orleans, Palast reported, had no such plan before Katrina. “Long after 2,000 drowned, I found the "plan": no provision at all for the 27,000 residents without cars. That's not surprising: the hurricane evacuation contractor had zero experience in hurricane evacuation.

Mayor Bloomberg wants New Yorkers to know this is serious—so his office has taken to tweeting admonishments to citizens like “If you are in Zone A, prepare to evacuate asap. But in all the press announcements of mandatory evacuation, nowhere were there instructions on how to evacuate without transport. The city's evacuation brochure lists helpful things like what you should pack, but not how you should get there. FEMA may have learned something from Katrina at least, tweeting “#Hurricane #Irene: Text SHELTER + ZIP code to 43362 (4FEMA) to find nearest shelter in ur area (example: shelter 12345).”

Nona Willis Aronowitz makes the point, though, that:
“. . . in a place like New York, where hurricanes happen approximately never, your safety depends on your access to information. People in North Carolina, Louisiana, and Florida know to keep their ears to the ground, but how do you get the word out in a place where the last serious hurricane happened in 1938? I live in a pretty low-income building in a low-income area, and I'm willing to bet that many of my neighbors don't have Internet access. If they choose not to turn on the news that day, they might be **** out of luck when their power goes off.”