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Last week, Hurricane Irene focused attention once again on climate change. Irene was only a Category 1 on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale, which rates storms by wind speed, but it carried a lot of water and dumped it on places that didn’t need it. Scientists in the field of atmospheric research tell us that storms are getting stronger, especially in the Atlantic, and that there is a direct correlation between the temperature of the ocean’s surface and the wind speed of the most powerful storms. For all Category 5 hurricanes the average increase in wind speed is 4.5 miles per...

Almost a dozen New England towns were rendered virtual islands Monday as floodwaters from the remnants of Hurricane Irene reshaped parts of Vermont and upstate New York, turning placid rivers into raging torrents and some streets into treacherous mud bogs. Hundreds of roads remained closed, dozens of bridges were gone and entire towns were cut off from assistance in the worst flooding some areas have seen in a century. A day earlier, Irene dumped up to 11 inches on parts of Vermont and more than 13 inches on some areas of New York — a deluge that quickly overwhelmed waterways,...

<p>The number of power outages in Connecticut keeps climbing, affecting more than 700,000 utility customers.</p> <p>Connecticut Light & Power, a unit of Northeast Utilities System and the state's largest utility, says Tropical Storm Irene knocked out power to about 621,000 customers as of 3:30 p.m. Sunday. That's about half of its customers.</p>

Yes the media does hype stories and weather.Everyone is sick of watching Cantore pick the wrong worst place to report in Hurricanes. I just got off of a generator with minimal things powered since Friday.I am in NC and I am just now catching up to NC/local news.People came back today to no homes whatsoever.The tobacco farmers lost they're crops to a tune of 16 milliom in losses in one county so far. The JOKER Purdue has not toured completely to asseses. There are people right now without water,electric and the temps have returned to very hot and humid.I just...

"Well, I want to tell you something: Hurricane Obama -- this irene. Whatever this Irene is going to cost us, it pales in comparison that has been the Hurricane that is the Obama administration. "The Obama administration, the Hurricane has cost us far more. And Byron York, while I was gone, great story, fabulous story on the source of all this deficit spending under Obama. The $4 trillion that they're spending. Everybody's focused on entitlements and he correctly points out it's not entitlements that have busted the budget here. Entitlements are known, the spending in entitlements. "What's been added to...

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Shares of property and casualty insurers rose Monday after the damage from Hurricane Irene appeared to be less than the market had predicted. Complete clarity on loss estimates will not be known for some time, but research firms say based on weaker-than-forecast wind speeds, particularly for the New York metropolitan area, the total loss for the sector is likely less than the initially expected range, which some had been pegging as tens of billions of dollars.

MIAMI (Reuters) - For Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann, Hurricane Irene and last week's earthquake in the eastern United States were a message from God that Washington needs to change its policies. Even as Irene was beginning its raking course up the East Coast over the weekend, which killed 21 people and caused widespread flooding and power outages, Bachmann told senior citizens in Poinciana, Florida, on Saturday that the hurricane was an "act of God" that Washington should heed. The Minnesota congresswoman, .. recalled Washington and the east had already felt a 5.8 magnitude earthquake on Tuesday. "Washington, D.C., you'd...

Was there some opportunistic political posturing during Hurricane Irene? The White House and FEMA issued multiple press releases about the “federal family” response to Irene, coining an appealing new term that might play well in overwrought press coverage. The “family” consisted of several federal agencies, a Defense Department presence and of course, noble input from the White House.

If you are affected by the storm approaching, please tell us what you have done to prepare for it. And keep us updated as it comes your way.

More than 700,000 customers remained in the dark Monday morning after Tropical Storm Irene swept through the state. Officials at Connecticut Light & Power said crews will work around the clock until restoration efforts are complete. During what will likely be a multi-day restoration effort, nearly 75 percent of crews will begin their shift at 7 a.m. to utilize daylight hours. The remaining 25 percent will begin at 3 p.m. and will work through the night. All CL&P employees are also required to take an eight-hour rest period between shifts to ensure safety. "Having a vast majority of crews work...

There was almost palpable disappointment among the TV big guns rolled out for the occasion when Irene was downgraded to a mere 'tropical storm". In New York city, CNN's Anderson Cooper, more usually seen in a tight t-shirt in a famine or war zone, was clad in what one wag dubbed "disaster casual". His face fell and he was briefly silent when a weatherwoman told him that the rain was not going to get any worse. "Wow, because this isn't so bad," he said. "It's an annoying rain but it isn't even a sideways rain."

It was raining in Manhattan on Sunday morning, and the dogged correspondents in their brightly colored windbreakers were getting wet. But the apocalypse that cable television had been trumpeting had failed to materialize. And at 9 a.m., you could almost hear the air come out of the media’s hot-air balloon of constant coverage when Hurricane Irene was downgraded to a tropical storm. Click here to find out more! Not everyone was willing to accept this turn of events. When the Weather Channel’s Brian Norcross told MSNBC that forecasters had been expecting the first hurricane to make landfall in New York...

CBS White House correspondent Norah O'Donnell said President Obama displayed his engagement to the federal government's response to Hurricane Irene by returning a day early from vacation and meeting with the head of FEMA. O'Donnell says the administration wanted to make sure no comparison to the government's handling of Katrina was made. "I think it's important to note too that the Obama administration was really determined to avoid any comparisons to the failed federal government response to Hurricane Katrina. So, President Obama made a very public display of his engagement on this issue. He returned from his vacation a day...

The Marshfield Dam operated by Green Mountain Power is in jeopardy of overflowing. Because of that, officials at GMP are preparing to possibly release water from the dam. That is expected to cause the Winooski River to rise significantly. "We are very aware of the potential flooding of the Winooski River throughout its entire system, and we understand that if we release the water that will increase flooding. However, if the dam were to fail that would be a huge amount of water and that would just be not acceptable. We are needing to make sure that we take all...

Yesterday was an interesting day. I presented a very straightforward map from Weather Underground showing that there were no sustained surface winds higher than 33 MPH at Irene’s US landfall. Hundreds of people went nuts, because the map disagreed with their need to blindly trust authority. They accused me of lying (did I make the map?) They accused Weather Underground of bogus maps (Jeff Masters the denier.) They came up with every reason to not believe the Emperor was NOAAked. Incidents like this help me to understand the roots of historical disastrous human behaviour. Many people will blindly trust authority...

(Reuters) - Hurricane Irene could cost U.S. state and local governments billions of dollars in damages, but funds from the federal government might ultimately cover much of this expense. It is too early to estimate the cost of the storm, but New Jersey Governor Chris Christie said New Jersey alone may have suffered tens of billions of dollars in damage.The timing is terrible for municipalities as they dig their way out of their bleakest economic period in decades after the financial crisis and recession sank budgets and forced widespread cuts in expense and increased taxes.But Maryland said the federal government...

The truth is that the dire warning beforehand suited both politicians and journalists. Just as with the minor earthquake that shook the east coast last week causing no loss of life and virtually no damage, Irene became a huge story because it was where the media lived. For politicians, Irene was a chance to either make amends or appear in control. The White House sent out 25 Irene emails to the press on Saturday alone.

Okay, we all know Hurricane Irene was hyped to the gills. WHY? Was it slow news? Was it media infatuation with Obama at the helm of FEMA?

Have your fun, Gulf Coasters. Go ahead, LOL at us. And Californians, please join in. It is a national pastime, apparently, to whip out our rulers and measure our natural disasters against one another in an endless, cross-country, chest-thumping smackdown. Yes, you’re totally right, America, about Washington’s wimpiness. We nearly crashed Twitter last week when the 5.8-magnitude earthquake knocked the political biographies off our bookshelves and tipped over our patio chairs. The horror! As Hurricane Irene churned toward the Mid-Atlantic, we bought enough dry goods to stock a humanitarian aid airlift for an entire continent and seriously discussed who could...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama says that while Tropical Storm Irene is weakening, it is still a threat to those communities in its path. Speaking from the Rose Garden, Obama says the public is still at risk of flooding and power outages.