New Storm Brews in the Atlantic

September 1, 2011

WALL ST. JOURNAL (NEW YORK, NY) - Weather forecasters are keeping a close eye on a powerful new storm churning in the mid-Atlantic even as the East Coast recovers from Irene.

Tropical Storm Katia is strengthening and likely will become a hurricane Wednesday afternoon, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami. But it isn't clear whether the storm will menace the East Coast.

"What, if any, impact it may have on the United States, or Bermuda for that matter, is way too early to tell," said center spokesman Dennis Feltgen.

If Katia does strengthen to a hurricane, it will become the second one to form in the Atlantic Ocean this season after Hurricane Irene, which struck the U.S. last weekend.

Katia is on a path to pass north of the Caribbean islands and is likely to strengthen "into a major hurricane in four to five days," Mr. Feltgen said.

The center's current forecasts have Katia becoming a Category 3 hurricane, with maximum wind speeds of 120 miles per hour, by Monday morning. It is projected at that time to be far northeast of Puerto Rico and far to the east of Florida.

The storm currently is traveling west by northwest at about 20 miles per hour, with its center about halfway between Africa and the Caribbean and in "a good environment for strengthening," Mr. Feltgen said.

Mr. Feltgen stressed the storm could grow more powerful—or dramatically weaken or shift direction—in coming days. "It could do anything," he said. "We'll have a better handle on it later this week."

As Katia churned, with sustained winds up to 65 miles per hour, lights continued to flicker back on for many of the 6.7 million utility customers who lost power in the U.S. as Irene swept up the East Coast over the weekend. But nearly two million customers on Wednesday were living through their third or fourth day without electricity, the U.S. Department of Energy said Wednesday.

With Irene's brutal rain replaced by crisp temperatures and brilliant blue skies, utility repair crews, cleanup teams and state and federal relief officials crisscrossed the region to assess the damage and reassure residents that help was on its way. The storm killed at least 44 people, caused property damage that will total billions of dollars and left countless roads impassable or wiped out, especially in rural areas.

"What you see today is challenging, but you know what, we've faced a lot of challenges and we've faced worse than this," New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said after touring flood devastation in Adirondack villages near Lake Placid. "We're going to build it back better."

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said he was moved by the "extraordinary despair" of some flood victims he visited Tuesday. Some areas of New Jersey continued to face flooding Wednesday as rivers crested.

President Barack Obama declared a disaster in eight New York counties, a move that expedites emergency aid to help cover the costs of debris removal and emergency services. New Jersey has requested a similar expedited declaration.

Federal officials were working to establish a new emergency-supply base in flood-stricken Vermont, where more than 200 roads remained impassable and about a dozen communities were unreachable except by air.

In New York, about 100 dump trucks were headed to three major staging areas, said Howard Glaser, director of state emergency operations. Also being sent were excavators, bulldozers, backhoes, 12 trailer-loads of generators, 20 trailers of water and 20 trailers of ready-to-eat meals.

At Republic Airport, a regional airfield on Long Island, state and federal workers were staffing a mobilization center where 20 federal workers are assisting with distribution and logistics of federal aid.

In Connecticut, where more than 366,000 people still lacked power, some towns said they would delay the beginning of school scheduled for next week.

Lori Lenz of Deep River, Conn., arrived at John Winthrop Junior High School late Tuesday afternoon, with two sons in tow, hoping to fill a five-gallon jug with drinking water.

Like many in her town, Ms. Lenz has been without power since Sunday. Her street is littered with downed trees and snapped utility poles. Workers had begun cleaning up, but she had been told it could be three weeks until power is restored. She was hoping that didn't turn out to be true. "If it's early, we'll all be happy," she said.

In the meantime, Ms. Lenz and her family have thrown out everything from the freezer and refrigerator, which had begun to reek. She is cooking on a propane camp stove and is hauling in water from a well to flush toilets. "It's not too bad," she said.

In Middlesex Borough, N.J., Irene left a foot of water in Michelle Huljack's green ranch house, and it did the same to other houses up and down her street. On Tuesday, she leaned on her windowsill and looked out onto a street piled with couches, televisions and other detritus that came from a block full of flooded houses. The street has been flooded in the past as well, and some residents were angry as they cleaned up. "If it rains two inches, we are at risk of being flooded," Ms. Huljack said. "We are the lost town."

On Tuesday, many in the neighborhood showed up at Borough Hall and demanded a meeting with Middlesex Mayor Robert Sherr.

Mr. Sherr said he felt for the people in the situation, but he said the residents, when buying their house, "had to know they were moving into a flood zone."

Some of the neighbors said they hoped the Federal Emergency Management Agency would pay for them to relocate, help rebuild or provide funds for a stalled project to protect the town with flood gates.

In Washington, federal relief officials said the storm response was shifting from emergency operations to relieving the suffering of victims.

"The search-and-rescue phase has ended," said FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate following a visit Tuesday to Vermont. "They are still looking for some missing people, but their primary goal now is to be able to get back into communities that are cut off and isolated."

Mr. Fugate added that officials planned to find ways to reach isolated communities with emergency vehicles by Tuesday night or Wednesday morning.

FEMA said Tuesday that it was setting up a new staging area at Camp Johnson, in Colchester, Vt., for stockpiling supplies of food and water. In addition, the federal government dispatched a disaster medical-assistance team from the Department of Health and Human Services to lend emergency support to hospitals and health centers in the state.

Vermont's own emergency-operations center was taken offline by flooding; FEMA said in a statement it had set up alternative communications at a previously established field office.

All told, FEMA said it has staged more than 1.1 million liters of bottled water and 927,000 meals in Massachusetts and New Jersey, in addition to more than 1.6 million meals and more than 1.6 million liters of water at Fort Bragg in North Carolina.