By Patrick Donges
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wamc/local-wamc-983582.mp3
Pittsfield, MA – As rain pelted Pittsfield and much of the WAMC listening area through the morning Thursday, residents across Massachusetts, New York and Vermont will only have a few days relief before hurricane Irene comes barreling up the eastern seaboard.
Bill Read, director of the National Hurricane Center, described the track of the storm in a conference call with reporters Thursday.
"We're now moving north-northwest at 13 mph. This is the expected turn; it's pretty much on schedule."
"There will be an impact on eastern North Carolina; the storm will continue moving towards the north-northeast after it crosses North Carolina and after that the rest of the eastern seaboard is well within the path of this storm."
"It's going to bring into play all of the northeast corridor. Sunday morning the impacts will be on the Delmarva (Peninsula) and Jersey Shore, Sunday afternoon into Monday morning for New England and New York."
While the storm will lose some steam as it passes over land on its way towards New England, the rain that has fallen in some areas over the last several weeks could set the stage for severe results; here's Read.
"From the nation's capital up into southern New England has had much above normal rainfall, so you have saturated ground. At a very minimum we're going to get 5 to 10 inches of rain and a wide swath of winds that are blowing in the tropical storm gust to hurricane force, even inland."
"You're going to get a lot of tree fall out of that, and you're going to get a lot of flooding out of that. It's almost a given."
According to Federal Emergency Management Agency administrator Craig Fugate, who was also on the call, FEMA has established three initial staging areas for emergency supplies; Fort Bragg, NC and military bases in McGuire, New Jersey and Westover, MA.
While Fugate noted that the location of staging areas do not necessarily reflect where officials believe the worst damage may occur, state officials are bracing for the impact of the storm. Mark Bosma is public information officer at Vermont Emergency Management.
"The big problem here in Vermont and upstate New York is trees. Trees come down on homes and trees come down on power lines, they come down on power lines, and that could cause some pretty serious injuries."
Bosma said Vermont-based utilities are on regular conference calls with the agency to share information and discuss contingency plans, and that the emergency operations center in Waterbury may be activated as the storm advances.
As for state residents, Bosma said they should hit the supermarkets, stocking up on canned food, bottled water, and batteries for flashlights and radios. He also offered this advice for homeowners.
"We always encourage people to get things like lawnmowers and lawn chairs off their front lawns because if it gets hit by a 70 mph wind gust a lawn chair becomes a very dangerous object."
In New York, Governor Andrew Cuomo has directed all state agencies to be proactive in preparations for the storm, according to Andrew Feeney, director of the state's Office of Emergency Management.
Feeney urged local residents to pay attention to their local public safety officials and local news media for instructions in the case of evacuations, which he said could be necessary in those areas near bodies of water.
"There are many areas that have creeks and streams and rivers that run through them and people live along those areas. So, even for a smaller rain event there's flooding, people often have to leave their homes for short periods of time as flood waters come up. Those conditions are likely to exist over the next several days."
Emergency management officials in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, which was hit with a severe microburst storm last month, have scheduled a meeting to discuss emergency response in the Berkshires for 1 p.m. Friday.