Bellmore-Merrick residents evacuating ahead of Irene

At midday on Saturday, many Bellmore-Merrick residents living south of Merrick Road were seen packing up their belongings and piling into their vehicles, headed to higher ground ahead of Hurricane Irene, as per the mandatory evacuation order issued by Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano on Friday. Others said they were still making up their minds whether to stay or go. And still others insisted they would ride out the storm at home.

Mangano said that all residents living south of Sunrise Highway from the Queens border to Rockville Centre must leave their homes, along with all residents south of Merrick Road from Baldwin to the Nassau-Suffolk border. Mangano said that he wanted everyone out by 5 p.m. on Saturday, before 50 mile-per-hour winds kicked up.

According to the National Weather Service, Hurricane Irene, with its sights set straight at Long Island, was downgraded overnight from a Category Two to a Category One hurricane, with sustained winds above 74 miles per hour, and by the time it makes landfall on Long Island, sometime between Saturday night and Sunday morning, it was expected to be further downgraded to a tropical storm, with winds between 50 and 70 mph.

Even though Irene has been downgraded, officials at the National Hurricane Center said, the storm still presents serious risks to residents in low-lying areas. In particular, they said, residents in possible flood zones should pay close attention to storm surge, the sea swell experienced as a hurricane approaches land, pushing massive amounts of seawater ahead of it. According to topographical maps, Bellmore-Merrick neighborhoods south of Merrick Road sit five to 10 feet above sea level. At press time, the National Weather Service was predicting a storm surge for Long Island of between four and eight feet. In that scenario, coastal areas five feet above sea level could be flooded with three feet of seawater, in addition to the six to 12 inches of rainwater that the National Weather Service was predicting. That, county officials said, was why it was critical that South Shore residents in low-lying areas evacuate.