5:32 EST: Irene has dropped in intensity but is still classified as Cat 1. As of now sustained winds are at 80 mph. Five deaths reported so far.

Update (more below): Live New York City “Hurricane Cam.”

One worrying aspect of  the storm is the storm surge, which seems to be lining up to come in at an already really high tide.

Here’s a report for Virginia, which should be starting to feel the storm now:

Although Irene was downgraded to a Category 1 hurricane, there’s another natural event that’s expected to exacerbate the potential for property damage and personal injury: the arrival of a new moon Sunday night.

During new and full moons, the gravitational pull between the earth and the moon intensifies, causing lower low tides and higher high tides. This can increase the power and level of storm surges flooding low-lying areas.

The storm surge from Hurricane Irene combined with the highest tides of the month could make Irene “the storm of a lifetime” for Tidewater Virginians, Gov. Bob McDonnell said Friday…

New Jersey faces a similar situation.

If you have pics, please share them on our FaceBook page!

More soon…

Updates:

• NYT Twitter feed.

• National Hurricane Center twitter feed.

• National Geographic has photos.

• Rosanne Cash takes a pic of 8th Avenue, “As empty as I’ve ever seen it.”

• Streaker ruins Weather Channel report. (Warning: Full frontal stupidity.)

East coasters: Do you have your supplies yet? Don’t wait any longer. By all accounts this is a very real and very big storm. Here’s a really good pdf from the NHC about hurricane preparedness.

UJBR Tip: Fill up your bathtub with water! You may need it to flush your toilets!

• Irene is now a Category 2 storm, but seems to be teetering up near 3, and could strengthen after hitting the Carolinas and before heading toward the hugely populated areas up around New York.

We’ll be updating. Please let us know what you’re seeing and hearing in the comments.

Be safe!

*** Best real-time tracking map we’ve seen right here.

______

Updates:

• Weather Underground’s Irene page here.

3:52 PM PST, Friday: PC World has a list of best places to track Irene online.

4:19 PM: CNN has a storm blog up.

4:38 PM: Here’s a map of NYC’s evacuation zones. Zone A (the orangish one) is now a mandatory evacuation zone.

4:51 PM: The Huffington Post has a good thread going with lots of updates.

By 5 pm tomorrow, if everyone in the low-lying “Zone A” areas follows the mayor’s evacuation orders, Coney Island will be a ghost town.

5:13 PM: Oh very cool – Google has just released a storm tracking tool.

5:49 PM: Storm weakening, but still categorized as hurricane:

Satellite data and measurements from the Hurricane Hunters show that Irene continues to weaken. A 1:32 pm EDT center fix by an Air Force Reserve aircraft found that Irene’s eyewall is still gone, and the central pressure had risen to 951 mb from a low of 942 mb this morning. The winds measured in Irene near the surface support classifying it as a strong Category 1 hurricane or weak Category 2.

6:48 PM: The New York Times has dropped its paywall for the storm.

7:00 PM PST: The Gothamist, a NYC blog, might be a good place to check in.

Play Our “Hurricane Irene Bingo” This Weekend!

8:31 PM: As of 9 PM tonight PST Direct TV is dedicating channels 259, 325 and 349 – to storm coverage.

Ugh. Just ugh. Possibly the most shocking bit is a quote from a cleanup worker, who demanded anonymity:

I got thirty minutes of safety instruction. It’s not enough. And people come here with no knowledge of the operation.

Thirty minutes of training to work on cleaning up the site of the second worst nuclear power accident in history. Just unbelievable.

There’s more:

A Channel 4 News researcher rang a number on a “jobs-available” poster that we found plastered on a wall in Iwaki. “What sort of experience do you have,” said the man on the phone to our researcher. “Well I’ve done some car maintenance,” said our researcher. “Good enough,” said the man, presumably one of the 600 “subcontractors” engaged by TEPCO. Our researcher asked about the daily rate. “Six-thousand yen (£50),” he said. That quickly went up to 8,500 yen (£67) as our researcher hummed and hawed a bit. But there was something special on offer said the subcontractor. “You can earn 40,000 yen (£315) an hour if you want, but what you have to do is dangerous.” We didn’t find out what that job entailed but it probably involved some sort of increased risk of radiation exposure.

Oy weh.

Oh, this story will get you:

Tens of millions of yen has been turned in to authorities by rescue workers and citizens who found the cash in the rubble of disaster-hit areas, the Kyodo news agency reported Sunday, citing police.

Police told Kyodo that citizens were turning in cash and valuables every day and that there was little hope in most cases of finding the original owners if the items were found without identification. Under Japanese law, the finders would be able to keep the money if the owners did not claim it within three months.

Dang.

You’ve all no doubt heard about the huge earthquake and devastating tsunami in Japan. Our thoughts are with everyone there.

You may have also heard that tsunami warnings were issued for the American West Coast, not far from the BRI headquarters. (We are too far inland to be in any danger, just to note.)

Just two hours and change west of us, Crescent City, California, got hit pretty bad. Andd just to the north of there Brookings, Oregon, got it, too.

Further to the south, someone took a video of a surge entering San Francisco Bay. (No word on damages there.)

Any reports from readers?

And no, “Toxic Sludge” is not the name of a death metal band. Or it may be, but it is unfortunately not the subject of this story:

The toxic red sludge leak in Hungary reached the Danube River on Thursday as emergency officials worked to contain as much of the leak as possible.

Tibor Dobson, a top disaster management official, told CNN that the sludge — which flowed from an aluminum plant reservoir that burst on Monday — has reached the continent’s second-largest river.

You don’t really get the full impact until you see the video. This was like a flood/landslide, only rather than being composed of water and regolith and whatnot, it’s toxic waste from an aluminum factory that probably has safety regulations from the Stone Age. And it engulfed entire towns!

Police reported that two people were killed, and several other were burnt – burnt – just touching the sludge. Wonderful.

The map came from here. The factory was located 100 miles to the west of Budapest, at the big “corner” in the river.

Ignore that man behind the oil slick:

Last night CBS Evening News aired a segment on the oil spill and included a clip of BP contractors turning the CBS crew away from investigating part of the oil-drenched Louisiana shoreline under threat of being arrested if they proceeded. The contractor, or a Coast Guard…it’s not quite clear, told CBS that they were merely enforcing BP’s rules.

BP’s rules? That was a public beach! Unbelievable!

Here’s the video:

Here’s a NASA pic of the slick from two days ago:

You can see many more fascinating images at NASA.