New York was this morning in the eye of the storm as hurricane Irene forced an unprecedented shutdown of the city, forcing hundreds of thousands to flee in terror, ripping trees from the ground and leaving millions without power. Manhattan was turned into a ghost town as the streets were deserted after the hurricane smashed its way up the East Coast before descending on the Big Apple. Heavy rains raised fears of severe flooding and 200,000 New Yorkers were left without power, mainly residents on Staten Island, Queens and the outer suburbs as hurricane Irene ripped through the city. Experts said a storm surge on the fringes of Lower Manhattan could send seawater into the maze of underground vaults that hold the city's cables and pipes, knocking out power to thousands and crippling Wall Street, Ground Zero and the luxury high-rise apartments of Battery Park City. Tornadoes were also a possibility. The destructive power of hurricane Irene has so far killed ten people, including two children. An 11-year-old boy in Virginia was killed when a tree fell through the roof of his house and a child died in a car crash at an intersection in North Carolina where traffic lights were out. More than three million people from South Carolina to Maryland were without power as the giant 580-mile-wide storm brought widespread flooding and high winds that knocked down power lines
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