Hurricane Irene hits the United States East Coast

by Waldirene Biernath

The torment from tropical storm Irene isn't over as parts of the United States East Coast grappled Monday with still-dangerous flood waters, widespread power outages and stranded residents.

Source: Google image

The US east coast has begun clearing up after the devastation of Irene, which killed at least 21 people.

The storm is now soaking Canada's north-east, while the north-eastern US is battling historic floods; five million US homes have lost power.

Source: Google image

President Barack Obama has warned that the impact of the storm will be felt for some time and that the recovery effort will last for weeks. 

Irene was earlier downgraded to a tropical and then a post-tropical storm. It was classified as a category-three hurricane, with winds of more than 120mph (192km/h), when it swept through the Caribbean last week.

Source: Google image

See more:

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/US/08/29/irene.aftermath/index.html?hpt=hp_t2;

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/29/nyregion/wind-and-rain-from-hurricane-irene-lash-new-york.html?_r=1&hp

Vocabulary:

grapple (noun):  the act of engaging in close hand-to-hand combat; (to) grapple (verb): to fight with someone; grapple with something to try hard to understand a difficult idea or to solve a difficult problem;

widespread (adjective): happening or existing in many places, or affecting many people;

outages (noun): a period of time when the electricity supply in a particular place stops working;

stranded (adjective): left somewhere with no way of going anywhere else;

battling (verb: to battle): to try very hard to deal with a difficult situation.