Hurricane Irene

Over the past week, Hurricane Irene grew from a tropical cyclone in the Caribbean to a category 3 hurricane as it blew north along the East Coast of the United States. High winds and tremendous rainfall downed trees and battered shorelines, leaving millions without power and causing some 26 deaths across nine states. Though Irene was downgraded to a tropical storm as it made landfall in New York, the heavy downpours have caused flooding problems across many states that are still unfolding. Collected below are some images from the brief, eventful life of Hurricane Irene. [40 photos]

Betty Walsh, a local resident, crosses a flooded street in Red Hook, on August 28, 2011 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City, after Tropical Storm Irene had passed by. (Robert Nickelsberg/Getty Images)  

 

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A NASA Goddard Space Flight Center handout photo taken by an Expedition 28 crew member aboard the International Space Station shows an image of Hurricane Irene off the east coast of the United States around 4:30 p.m. EDT, on August 26, 2011. (Reuters/NASA/Expedition 28 - ISS/Goddard Space Flight Center/Handout) #

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A man surveys the damage around a friend's home in the background as a sailboat is washed ashore as Hurricane Irene arrives on August 28, 2011 in Southampton, New York. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images) #

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A man stands in the middle of a deserted Broadway in Lower Manhattan, New York, early on August 28, 2011 as Hurricane Irene hits the city with rain and high winds. New York City resembled a ghost town after 370,000 people were told to evacuate flood-prone regions, including areas near Wall Street and at Coney Island. (Stan Honda/AFP/Getty Images) #

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In this photo provided by the New York State Metropolitan Transportation Authority, two men push a cart through a deserted Grand Central Terminal in New York, on Saturday, Aug. 27, 2011. Metro North suspended service and Amtrak is running on a reduced schedule due to Hurricane Irene. (AP Photo/NY Metropolitan Transportation Authority, Marjorie Anders) #

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In this photo provided by the New York State Metropolitan Transportation Authority, an MTA employee fills an "AquaDam," placed across the Long Island Rail Road tracks at New York City's Penn Station, on Saturday, August 27, 2011. The temporary barrier was installed to help keep flood waters stirred up by Hurricane Irene out of Penn Station's tunnels. (AP Photo/NY Metropolitan Transportation Authority, John Kettel) #

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Waves crash over the shore during high tide during a storm surge from Hurricane Irene in Bayshore, New York, on Long Island, on August 28, 2011. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa) #

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Boats sit in an almost empty channel as Hurricane Irene pushes the water out in to Albemarle Sound, on August 27, 2011 in Nags Head, North Carolina, (AP Photo/The News & Observer, Shawn Rocco) #

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Abandoned beach front houses are surrounded by rising water as the effects of Hurricane Irene are felt in Nags Head, North Carolina, on August 27, 2011 (AP Photo/Gerry Broome) #

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A surfer braves the wind and waves at The Washout at Folly Beach created by Hurricane Irene, on August 26, 2011 in Folly Beach, South Carolina. (AP Photo/The Post And Courier, Sarah Bates) #

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A crayfish walks along a gas station parking lot in Millsboro, Delaware, early Sunday, August 28, 2011. The hurricane unloaded more than a foot of water on North Carolina, spun off tornadoes in Virginia, Maryland and Delaware, and left 3 million homes and businesses without power as it moved up the East Coast. (AP Photo/The Wilmington News-Journal, Suchat Pederson) #

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A shopper passes by empty shelves while looking for bottled water at a Stop and Shop at Rockaway Beach in New York, on August 26, 2011. (Reuters/Allison Joyce) #

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Waves break along the pier which was damaged during Hurricane Irene, in Ocean City, Maryland, on August 28, 2011. (Reuters/Molly Riley) #

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A destroyed home sits near the shoreline of the Pamilco River near Aurora, North Carolina, on August 28, 2011 after Hurricane Irene hit the North Carolina coast. (AP Photo/Chuck Burton) #

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A deer wades through floodwaters in the aftermath of Hurricane Irene, on August 28, 2011, in Lincoln Park, New Jersey. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez) #

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A rainbow appears over a building as sand is blown down Long Beach Park as the sun sets and the sky clears from Hurricane Irene in Long Beach, New York, on August 28, 2011. (Reuters/Lucas Jackson) #

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Waves sweep over a beached sailboat in Bogue Sound as the backside of Hurricane Irene comes ashore near Morehead City, North Carolina, on August 27, 2011. (Reuters/Steve Nesius) #

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An Eyewitness News SUV is covered in sand and mud created when Hurricane Irene swept through on August 28, 2011 in Long Beach, New York. (Mike Stobe/Getty Images) #

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The American flag flies in tatters above the U.S. Capitol after Hurricane Irene moved through the nation's capital, on August 28, 2011 in Washington, DC. (Win McNamee/Getty Images) #

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Janie Gibbs helps clean up a friend's destroyed home on August 28, 2011 after it was hit by Hurricane Irene Saturday in Columbia, North Carolina, The storm killed at least 14 people and left 4 million homes and businesses without power. It unloaded more than a foot of water on North Carolina and spun off tornadoes in Virginia, Maryland and Delaware. (AP Photo/John Bazemore) #

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Manhattan and the Brooklyn Bridge are hit by Hurricane Irene, in New York, on August 28, 2011. (Emmanuel Dunand/AFP/Getty Images) #

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Elijah Gothard, left, and Amanda Tanguay, right, interns at the Sea Turtle Rescue and Rehabilitation Center in Topsail Island, help move turtles out of the center before the worst of Hurricane Irene hits the island, on August 26, 2011, in Surf City, North Carolina. (AP Photo/The Wilmington Star-News, Matt Born) #

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Jackie Sparnackel has to abandon her van and her belongings near the Frisco Pier after she drove up to see how the storm-battered structure was doing on August 27, 2011 in Frisco, North Carolina. Friends tried to tow her out but she was caught in an overwash. Hurricane force winds from Irene were battering the island where power has been knocked out. (AP Photo/The News & Observer, Chuck Liddy) #

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Streets of Long Beach Island, New Jersey, are flooded after Hurricane Irene moved through the area on August 28, 2011. (AP Photo/Rich Schultz) #

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A young boy leans into powerful wind gusts near the Whitehall Terminal in Lower Manhattan just hours after Hurricane Irene blew through the city on August 28, 2011 in New York City. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) #

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Neighbors look at a scene where a large tree crushed a car on August 28, 2011 in Baltimore, Maryland. (Patrick Smith/Getty Images) #

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An unidentified man hangs on to a branch in a rain swollen creek as he waits for rescuers in New City, New York, on August 28, 2011. He and three others went tubing in the creek and had to be rescued by New City and Stony Point fire departments' water rescue teams. With the rains and wind of Tropical Storm Irene heading north, some people went out for recreation in the unusual conditions left in the storm's wake. ( AP Photo/The Journal News, Peter Carr) #

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Darrell Tarte, a property estimator with Erie Insurance, surveys damage from a tree at a home in Port Republic, Maryland, after Hurricane Irene on August 28, 2011. (AP Photo/Steve Ruark) #

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Melvin Flores uses a pail to scoop floodwaters out of his utility room in his apartment after rain from Hurricane Irene, on August 28, 2011, in Little Falls, New Jersey. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez) #

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Bennington Police Chief Paul Doucette looks at a collapsed bridge on Route 9 in Woodford, Vermont, on August 28, 2011. The remnants of Hurricane Irene dumped torrential rains on Vermont on Sunday, flooding rivers and closing roads from Massachusetts to the Canadian border, putting parts of two towns underwater and leaving one young woman swept away and feared drowned in the Deerfield River. (AP Photo/Bennington Banner, Austen Danforth) #

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A pine tree collapsed after Hurricane Irene passed, on August 28, 2011 in Jacksonville, North Carolina. (AP Photo/The Jacksonville Daily News, John Althouse) #

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Police and fire officials look over the scene of fast-moving flood waters overlapping parked cars on Ferry St. in Trenton, New Jersey, in the aftermath of Hurricane Irene on August 28, 2011. (AP Photo/The Trentonian, Jackie Schear) #

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Billy Stinson comforts his daughter Erin Stinson as they sit on the steps where their cottage once stood, on August 28, 2011 in Nags Head, North Carolina. The cottage, built in 1903 and destroyed yesterday by Hurricane Irene, was one of the first vacation cottages built on Albemarle Sound in Nags Head. Stinson has owned the home, which is listed in the National Register of Historic Places, since 1963. "We were pretending, just for a moment, that the cottage was still behind us and we were just sitting there watching the sunset," said Erin afterward. (Scott Olson/Getty Images) #

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Sand covers the board walk after Hurricane Irene passed through in Ocean City, Maryland, on August 28, 2011. (Reuters/Molly Riley) #

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Mark Wade chases his friend Craig Busick (center) as he surfs a large puddle in front of the Board of Education in Centreville, Maryland, on August 28, 2011, after Hurricane Irene. (Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images) #

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Mel Martin joins a crowd watching the raging Whetstone Brook surge over the falls in downtown Brattleboro, Vermont, on August 28, 2011. (AP Photo/The Brattleboro Reformer, Chris Bertelsen) #

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A person searches for anyone who may be occupying the building as raging flood waters from Tropical Storm Irene cross Route 100, closing the main road to traffic in Waitsfield, Vermont, on August 28, 2011. (AP Photo/Sandy Macys) #

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A resident walks through floodwater on Coney Island after Hurricane Irene hit, in New York, on August 28, 2011. (Emmanuel Dunand/AFP/Getty Images) #

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A Fairfield Beach Road home is submerged in Pine Creek in Fairfield, Connecticut, as treacherous weather caused by Tropical Storm Irene came through the area on August 28, 2011. (AP Photo/The Connecticut Post, Cathy Zuraw) #

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A woman walks off the Long Beach Park beach as the sun sets and the sky clears from Hurricane Irene in Long Beach, New York, on August 28, 2011. (Reuters/Lucas Jackson) #

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