This is Times Square?! Window shoppers were left all wet as stores like this Planet Hollywood in Times Square erected plywood as Irene advanced on the city.
Doug Meszler / Splash News
2 of 19
People line up with their luggage as they wait to enter a temporary shelter in New York. By Saturday afternoon 1,400 people had sought refuge from the storm.
AFP/Getty Images
3 of 19
In an unprecedented move, the city shut down the entire transit system at noon Saturday ahead of the storm, leaving passengers like this group from Coney Island stranded.
AFP/Getty Images
4 of 19
Made it! Coney Island residents Arseni Flax, center, and his mother Nelly bring along their parakeets while evacuating the Coney Island.
AP
5 of 19
Sumeth Kawpunna shops for last-minute goods in preperation for hurricane Irene at a Home Depot store in New York City.
Getty Images
6 of 19
Cut off: A Whole Foods worker attempts to explain the supermarket’s closing to angry customers who had been waiting their turn to stock up. The store, having stayed open throughout the night, closed out of concern for their workers’ safety during the storm.
AP
7 of 19
Can’t do this every day! Doorman Scott Koehler plays football on a deserted Broadway in Manhattan as Hurricane Irene approaches.
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8 of 19
Workers at a residential building in the financial district stack sand bags in anticipation of flooding.
AP
9 of 19
Farewll and good luck: Julissa Fugeuroa, left, and Arianna Guzman, right, hug friends as they evacuate from the Jacob Riis Houses, located in a mandatory evacuation zone in Manhattan. Approximately 370,000 city residents were ordered to leave as the atorm approached.
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10 of 19
Mayor Michael Bloomberg Saturday again pleaded with New Yorkers to take Irene’s threat seriously, warning that those in danger areas who try and weather the storm is “life-threatening” and “not a joke.”
Reuters
11 of 19
An MTA employee fills an “AquaDam” across the Long Island Rail Road tracks at New York City’s Penn Station, designed to help keep flood waters out of tunnels.
AP
12 of 19
Hard at work: City maintenance workers take shelter inside the Bowling Green subway station while putting on their rain gear in Battery Park.
Getty Images
13 of 19
Tough call: April Rodriguez debates whether she will stay and ride out Hurricane Irene with friends, as she sits alongside the deserted Coney Island boardwalk.
Reuters
14 of 19
A man walks past a boarded-up section of the historic Flatiron Building.
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15 of 19
A single yellow cab takes the drive over the oddly quiet Brooklyn Bridge.
AP
16 of 19
A runner’s dream: A pair of fitness buffs take advantage of the city’s empty streets by taking a jog down Broadway.
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17 of 19
A family pushes their bird cage in a stroller as they cross Church Street near Ground Zero while evacuating lower Manhattan.
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18 of 19
US Army National Guard soldiers gather on Lexington Avenue in Manhattan as Hurricane Irene approaches.
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19 of 19
What, me worry? While the rest of New York wrings its hands over Irene, a surfer walks catches a wave off Rockaway Beach.
REUTERS
