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Hurricane Irene: After Landfall, Trees Down, Power Off in Nassau County

Even before Tropical Storm Irene made landfall in New York early Sunday, her winds caused major damage throughout Long Island. Trees were downed and power was lost to as many as 460,000 Long Island customers, the Long Island Power Authority reported.

Overnight, winds as high as 70 miles per hour from then-Hurricane Irene lashed Nassau and Suffolk Counties. Newsday reported the highest recorded winds at 67 mph at Bayville, on the north shore, in the Town of Oyster Bay.

Kate Murray, Supervisor of the Town of Hempstead, said there had not been serious reports of flooding but that tree removal will be key. Tree removal will be the story, she told WNBC. She said there had been no reports of breaches in dunes in beaches in the town, Nassau's most populous, which includes Point Lookout and Lido Beach, just east of Long Beach.

Murray, a resident of Levittown, said she had lost power at home.

In Great Neck, residents of an apartment building just west of the Village Green were awakened around 3 a.m. after southeast winds uprooted a large tree, which fell cleanly into the front yard, narrowly avoiding the building as well as LIPA power lines. A June 2010 micro-burst uprooted as many as 3,000 trees in central Great Neck and battered the Village Green, which was replanted by the Great Neck Park District. It appeared not to have been damaged Sunday.

Great Neck Park District Chairman Ivar Segalowitz said in an interview he was not aware of major damage to any of the parks in the peninsula. Segalowitz said he was headed to Steppingstone Park, a green space and marina at the tip of Kings Point, where workers had dismantled a large sound stage used for summer concerts Friday, as well as moved floating piers in the marina.

But at least 30 familes from Kings Point, the tip of the Great Neck peninsula, took shelter at Great Neck North High School Saturday night, a school district official said. Their homes were in low-lying sections of the affluent village of 6,000, one of the richest in the U.S. Many Kings Point mansions have private docks and mini-marinas.

Sandbags had been placed around Great Neck House, the Park Commission's community center, which appeared to be dry. A large branch on Arrandale Ave., to the north, had fallen in front of its entrance.

Power stayed on in Great Neck and many sections of Nassau County but LIPA said many sections were dark. Over the past 14 months, LIPA has performed extensive tree-trimming in county wide. The Irene outages already surpass a 2010 winter storm, LIPA acknowledged. Repair crews will wait until winds die down to perform repairs.

TV images showed Irene's storm surge in Long Beach, on the south shore, where Irene's waves damaged the boardwalk and shoved a large concrete tower up the beach into the boardwalk. National Guard personnel were ordered to deal with post-surge flooding ithere.

Flooding was also reported in south shore communities including Freeport, Merrick, Lido Beach and Atlantic Beach. Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano urged residents to remain at home.

Suffolk County communities such as Babylon sustained heavy flooding, TV images showed.

Starting Friday, Nassau's Mangano had ordered residents living in areas lying 10 feet and less above sea level to evacuate. While mainly on the south shore, they also include residents in the Town of North Hempstead on the Port Washington peninsula, on the north shore.

In the Great Neck peninsula, just west of Port Washington, the main arteries looked clear. The Long Island Rail Road and Long Island Bus remained closed after the Metropolitan Transportation Authority suspended all operations midday Saturday. There was little traffic.

Forecasters said winds from Irene, downgraded now to only a tropical storm, will persist for many hours. Rain, more than 10 inches in some areas of Long Island, only about two weeks after a similar downpour, was expected to taper off.

ISM data unsettles risk appetite

The US ISM data illustrates the risk that confidence in the US and global economy will deteriorate again as the services-sector comes under pressure under the weight of rising unemployment. Markets will continue to look for opportunities to push the US currency weaker, although resistance levels will remain tough to break above the 1.4440 region. Overall, the Euro is vulnerable to a further limited correction weaker towards 1.4325 against the dollar.

The US data on Wednesday was weaker than expected with an ADP employment decline of 371,000 for July compared with expectations of a 345,000 fall for the month.

The ISM report for the services sector weakened unexpectedly to 46.4 for July from 47.0 previously. The orders component deteriorated while the prices index was sharply weaker and the employment index was still depressed. In this environment, Friday€™s non-farm payroll estimates are liable to revised slightly lower which will curb risk enthusiasm over the next 36 hours

Hurricane Irene: Philadelphia Region in Flood Emergency; 600,000 Without Power

Hurricane Irene has departed the Delaware Valley, but created dangerous flooding conditions in southeastern Pennsylvania and southern New Jersey in its wake.

More than 600,000 people in the region are also without power.

Irene lashed Philadelphia with torrential rains; while prompting the exodus of thousands of Jersey shore residents inland to escape Irene’s wrath.

On Saturday night, Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter declared a state of emergency – the first in the city in 25 years.

This is one of the worst storm events that has hit Philadelphia in the last 50 years, he said.

The Philadelphia International Airport remains closed, while the SEPTA mass transit system is still shut down.

The National Weather Service has placed the entire region under a flash flood warning until 11:30 a.m. Sunday.

According to local Philadelphia media, the inland suburbs surrounding the city fared worse than the Jersey shore in terms of flooding. Rising waters have trapped people in their cars and homes in Upper Moreland, Abington, Willow Grove and other parts of Montgomery County.

The Schuylkill River was overflowing its banks and is expected to crest at more than 15 feet by this afternoon, prompting major flooding.

Rising water from the Schuylkill have swamped Kelly Drive and Chestnut Street near the Chestnut Street bridge in Philadelphia; while waters flowing from The Delaware River turned the intersection of Spring Garden Street and Delaware Avenue into a swimming pool.

Chester Creek near Upland. Pa. is already 8 feet about flood stage and continues to rise; Darby Creek has overflowed, flooding McDade Boulevard in Darby Borough.

Major flooding is expected to continue Sunday along at New hope and Easton along the Delaware River.

Due to flooding fears, many townships in Bucks County have declared states of emergency.

PECO, the largest electric and natural gas utility in Pennsylvania, said 297,000 of its customers are out of power; PSE&G reported 230,000 people without power; while Atlantic City Electric said its figure was 83,960.

Service may not be restored immediately.

“Our restoration time that we're seeing now could be one to two weeks for some, depending on how much damage there is in the area, said a PECO spokesperson.

The ground is completely saturated. We've gotten a ton of rain, and damaged trees with branches are falling on power lines. On top of that, we have cleanup to do.

Other reports of local damager include: a house in North Philadelphia Sunday collapsed due to heavy rains, but no one was hurt; a twister was reported in Vineland, N.J.

Oil falls below $71 after inventory data

Oil fell toward $70 a barrel on Wednesday after U.S. government inventory data showed a build in crude stocks and weak economic data raised doubts about oil demand recovery in the world's largest energy consumer.

U.S. light, sweet crude fell 81 cents to $70.61 a barrel by 1455 GMT, giving away some of the gains that helped oil rise 13 percent since late last week.

London Brent crude fell 21 cents to $74.07 a barrel.

U.S. crude inventories rose more than expected last week as refinery runs eased, while distillate stocks showed a surprise draw, according to weekly data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) released on Wednesday.

Crude stockpiles in the world's top consumer rose by 1.7 million barrels in the week to July 31, against forecasts for an 800,000-barrel build as refinery utilization fell by 0.1 percentage point to 84.5 percent.

The big build on crude caught some people by surprise and shows overall weakness in the economy and the unwinding of economic optimism. Nothing in the numbers was very bullish, said Phil Flynn, analyst at PFGBest Research in Chicago.

The EIA data followed inventory numbers on Tuesday from the American Petroleum Institute, which showed crude stocks fell 1.5 million barrels last week but gasoline stocks rose by a further 2.1 million barrels.

Oil was already lower before the release of inventory figures as doubts over economic recovery and demand for fuel resurfaced after weak U.S. services sector data depressed stock markets both sides of the Atlantic.

Expectations that a turnaround in the global economy could lift sagging oil demand has helped send crude up from lows below $33 a barrel in December, with energy traders keeping an eye on equities markets for signs of an economic rebound.

Investors were awaiting news from a meeting between trade representatives and Britain's financial powers, the UK Financial Services Authority (FSA) and the UK Treasury, which comes before a third Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) hearing in Washington over how to rein in speculation.

The UK meeting will discuss market transparency and efficiency, according to the FSA invitation to oil market participants, a copy of which has been seen by Reuters.

Energy traders also were watching an area of thunderstorms in the Atlantic Ocean several hundred miles southwest of the Cape Verde Islands associated with a tropical wave. The U.S. National Hurricane Center said it had less than a 30 percent chance of becoming a tropical storm.

(Editing by Sue Thomas)