Irene begins to hit New York, mayor says stay inside

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Hurricane Irene began to hammer New York City late on Saturday, prompting Mayor Michael Bloomberg to warn New Yorkers to stay inside and ride out a storm that is on a direct path for the world's financial capital.

"Conditions are expected to deteriorate rapidly," a tired looking Bloomberg told a news conference. "The storm is now finally hitting New York City. The winds will increase, the rain will increase and the tidal surge will increase."

New Yorkers deserted the streets and took cover from a rare hurricane headed their way -- only five have tracked within 120 km of the city since records have been kept. The full impact was expected through Sunday morning.

Rain pelted all five boroughs of the city, and the National Weather Service issued a tornado watch in addition to the hurricane warning. The power utility Consolidated Edison weighed whether to preemptively cut off electricity in the Financial District surrounding Wall Street.

After Bloomberg ordered the unprecedented evacuation of 370,000 people living in neighbourhoods near the water's edge, more than 3,700 took refuge in the city's shelters, thousands more fled to the homes of friends or relatives and others defiantly stayed behind.

The mayor said that now those who had ignored warnings to evacuate needed to stay where they were as it was too dangerous outside.

He chastised two people who went kayaking off the city's Staten Island on Saturday afternoon in what he called a "reckless act" that required a police sea rescue. Both were given summonses to appear in court.

A smattering of food and liquor stores stayed open while the public transit system that moves 8.5 million people each weekday halted operations, also a first.

The giant 930 km-wide storm unleashed 130 km per hour winds, grounding aircraft all along the heavily populated eastern seaboard.

While shelters were mostly empty, others such as the John Adams High School in Queens overflowed.

At the Brooklyn Tech High School shelter, evacuees watched weather reports on a large television screen in the auditorium while others dined on mozzarella sticks, string beans, milk and apple sauce.

"I didn't want to leave (home), I wanted to stay, but I feared for my life. I didn't want to get stuck in the dark and in the flood," said Margie Robledo, 58, of Coney Island, who just arrived in New York from Puerto Rico, where the storm had hit days earlier.

CALM IN THE DANGER ZONE

Others defied the evacuation order after Bloomberg announced police would not enforce it. Despite the persistent warnings and ominous skies, the neighbourhood around Brooklyn's Coney Island -- within the danger zone -- was calm. Parked cars lined the streets, and there was no sign of a mass exodus.

"They are right, we should be evacuating, but we are not," said John Visconti, 47, who owns an auto repair business and lives on the ground floor of his building in the nearby Brighton Beach area of Brooklyn. "We just want to stay home and hope for the best. We should be OK."

The evacuation zones included shiny apartment buildings in Manhattan's wealthy Battery Park City, working class Red Hook in Brooklyn and run-down public housing in Coney Island -- all neighbourhoods at the water's edge.

"If the neighbourhood is eventually legitimately flooded, I have food and books and whiskey," said attorney Neal D'Amato, 31, sipping a beer at the Red Hook Bait and Tackle shop bar.

He said he would ride out the storm in his fourth-floor apartment.

In Times Square, the so-called crossroads of the world, tourists were left with limited options. Broadway shows were cancelled, Starbucks stores closed as did a McDonald's.

Many other chain stores and attractions for kids such as the Toys "R" Us flagship store and Hershey's chocolate emporium were shuttered.

The Frames bowling alley in the Port Authority Bus Terminal was still open, and had no immediate plans to close early, despite few customers. There was still adult entertainment on the fringes of Times Square with peep shows and stores offering porn, sex toys and lingerie open for business.

Taxis were plentiful even though mass transit halted at midday, suggested most people were staying home.

The network of 468 subway stations, 324 bus routes and two commuter rail lines was unlikely to be open for Monday morning's commute, Bloomberg said. The New York Stock Exchange expected a normal trading session on Monday.

PLASTIC SHEETS AND SANDBAGS

Outside the W Hotel near the World Trade Centre site of the September 11 attacks, Tamara Steil, 57, who is visiting from Michigan, waited for a hotel shuttle to take her to a midtown Manhattan hotel.

"We were here to spend money on restaurants and bars, but all these places are closed," she said, as she shared a pack of beer with other stragglers.

The South Street Seaport, which on a typical summer Saturday would be full of tourists, was nearly abandoned, the storefronts and restaurants boarded up or covered in plastic sheets, sandbags protecting the doors.

At a Manhattan Home Depot store, store clerks said they planned to stay open throughout the storm, but early on Saturday it had already run out of flashlights, duct tape, rope and tarps.

Irina Katkov, 38, an office manager who lives in a seven-story building near the Atlantic Ocean, said about half the people in the evacuation zone where she lives were staying put, herself among them.

"We're not scared, we are ready for the fun," Katkov said. "Cameras are ready, batteries are charged, can't wait."

(Additional reporting by Basil Katz, Edith Honan and Martin Howell; Writing by Daniel Trotta; Editing by Philip Barbara and Todd Eastham)

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