New York – Streets at NYC’s Edges Flood as Irene Bears Down

New York – Some streets at New York City’s edges are flooding as Hurricane Irene barrels toward the area.

City officials say rainfall overnight overwhelmed sewers and sent water streaming into some streets. Seawater from New York Harbor lapped at the edge the sidewalk at Battery Park along the tip of lower Manhattan.

Along the coast in the outer boroughs, flooding is worse. Ocean water was streaming into main streets of the Rockaways, a peninsula in Queens that Mayor Michael Bloomberg had ordered evacuated. In Brooklyn, Coney Island streets were also under water, and in Red Hook, also along the harbor, water was coming in about 100 yards.

Parts of New York’s Long Island were also flooding. Irene was set to make landfall around 9:30 a.m.