Escape for New York as massive coastal storm leaves 16 dead

At least 16 people died in fatal accidents caused by 65mph winds as Hurricane Irene swept up the USA’s eastern seaboard, dropping a foot of rain on states including North Carolina and Virginia.

Forecasters said the weather system had weakened to a tropical storm as it raced across New York City, fears of widespread devastation in America’s largest city proving unfounded.

The city was nonetheless facing gridlock today, with the entire metro system closed while tracks are inspected. Last night 65,000 homes within New York were still without electricity.

But Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who on Friday moved around 350,000 people from their homes in low-lying parts of the city such as Brooklyn and Queens, said New York had ultimately “dodged the bullet” following its biggest storm warning of modern times.

“All in all we are in pretty good shape because of the exhaustive steps we took,” he said.

“I would make the same decisions again. We can’t just, when a hurricane is coming, get out the way and hope for the best. We were unwilling to risk the life of a single New Yorker.”

The huge storm, 500 miles wide, had threatened 65 million people up and down the Atlantic coast, estimated to be the largest number of Americans ever affected by a single storm.

New York was eerily quiet yesterday, the city’s entire transit system shut down by weather for the first time in its history. All airports were closed, with more than 9,000 flights cancelled. Broadway shows, baseball games and other events were all cancelled or postponed.

On Wall Street, sandbags were placed around subway grates near the East River because of fear of flooding. In Times Square, shops boarded up windows and sandbags were stacked outside stores.

Irene hit the mainland just after dawn yesterday near Cape Lookout, North Carolina. Shorefront hotels and houses were lashed with waves, two piers were destroyed and at least one hospital was left dependent upon generator power.

As Irene headed inland it caused flooding from North Carolina to Delaware, both from the seven-foot waves it pushed into the coast and from heavy rain.

More than one million of the homes and businesses without power were in Virginia and North Carolina, which bore the brunt of Irene’s initial fury. The storm knocked out power to hundreds of thousands in Washington, Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Connecticut.

A nuclear reactor at Maryland’s Calvert Cliffs went offline automatically when winds knocked off a large piece of aluminium siding.

The facility and all employees were reported to be safe. In Philadelphia, Mayor Michael Nutter declared the city’s first state of emergency since 1986. “We are trying to save lives and don’t have time for silliness,” he said.

Irene was the first hurricane to hit mainland America since 2008, and came almost six years to the day after Hurricane Katrina ravaged New Orleans.

The deaths blamed on Irene included two children – an 11-year-old boy in Virginia killed when a tree crashed into his home; and a North Carolina child who died in a car crash at a junction where the traffic lights had failed.

Four other people were killed by falling trees or tree limbs. A surfer and another beach-goer in Florida died in heavy waves.

Britons waiting to fly home

Thousands of British tourists stranded in the US face further disruption as they wait to be flown home.

Airlines have been prevented from operating at four major airports as torrential rain continues to pound the region.

The threat of major floods could mean further delays even after Irene has passed, carriers warned.

British Airways and Virgin Atlantic were among those forced to suspend flights to New York and other eastern US cities yesterday.