Last summer we speculated about what might happen if the winds and/or storm surge from Hurricane Irene happened to hit the Brunswick nuclear plant in North Carolina head on. As luck would have it Irene weakened and veered to the north, but did she did go on to cause the shut down of the Oyster Creek nuclear reactor in New Jersey, amongst numerous other problems.

More on US Nuclear Plants Issue "Alerts" Following Sandy Storm Surge

In their interim 9 AM EDT public advisory bulletin the National Hurricane Centre said that:

CENTER OF IRENE MOVES OVER NEW YORK CITY

REPORTS FROM AN AIR FORCE HURRICANE HUNTER AIRCRAFT AND NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR INDICATE THAT THE CENTER OF IRENE MOVED OVER NEW YORK CITY AROUND 900 AM EDT, 1300 UTC. IRENE HAS WEAKENED TO A TROPICAL STORM AND THE ESTIMATED INTENSITY AT LANDFALL WAS 65 MPH

By 11 AM the NHC were reporting that:

More on Irene Weakens to Tropical Storm Force, but Millions of Lights are Still Out

In their 8 AM EDT public advisory bulletin the National Hurricane Centre say that the:

CENTER OF IRENE NEARING NEW YORK CITY

whilst the warnings they issued at 2 AM remain much the same. The models used by surf forecasting website MagicSeaweed suggest that the eye of the storm is currently passing almost directly over New York City, accompanied by strong onshore winds:

More on Centre of Irene Nearing New York City – Oyster Creek Reactor Shut Down

I've been blogging for some years now about the apparently increasing impact of North Atlantic hurricanes, and in particular their effect on one of the poorest nations on the planet, Haiti.  Today Hurricane Irene has left Haiti in its wake, and according to the United Nations this time around:

More on Hurricane Irene Spares Haiti, but Threatens the United States