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Cotton Hurricane Irene Summary 2Sep11
Storm Profile
 Hurricane Irene was a large Atlantic hurricane that left extensive flood and wind damage along its path through the Caribbean, the United States East Coast and as far north as Atlantic Canada. Irene was the ninth named storm, first hurricane and first major hurricane of the 2011 season. Irene formed from a well-defined Atlantic tropical wave that organizes east of the Lesser Antilles. It formed late on 20 August, passed the Leeward Islands and moved close to Saint Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands on 21 August. On 22 August Irene made landfall at hurricane strength near Puerto Rico, where high winds and intermittent torrents caused property damage.
Irene tracked just north of Hispaniola as an intensifying Category 1 hurricane, skirting the coast with heavy precipitation and strong winds that killed several people. After crossing the Turks and Caicos Islands, the hurricane quickly strengthened into a Category 3 major hurricane while passing through The Bahamas, leaving behind a trail of extensive structural damage in its wake. Curving toward the north, Irene skirted past Florida with its outer bands producing tropical-storm-force winds. It made landfall over Eastern North Carolina’s Outer Banks on the morning of August 27 as a Category 1 hurricane, and moved along southeastern Virginia, affecting the Hampton Roads region. After briefly reemerging over water, Irene made second US landfall near Little Egg Inlet in New Jersey during the morning of August 28, becoming the first hurricane to make landfall in the state since 1903. Irene was downgraded to a tropical storm as it made its third U.S. landfall in the Coney Island area of Brooklyn, New York, at approximately 9:00 a.m. on August 28. Considerable damage occurred in the Catskill Mountains and Mohawk Valley of New York State and in Vermont, which suffered from the worst flooding in centuries.
Throughout its path, Irene caused widespread destruction and at least 54 deaths; monetary losses to the Caribbean could be as high as US$ 3.1 billion according to preliminary estimates. Early damage estimates in the US are about $7 billion.
Cotton’s Pre-positioning and Response
 Cotton was put on notice by its clients for Puerto Rico, the Bahamas, and the United States East Coast. In response, Cotton pre-deployed Incident Commands and Property Damage Assessment teams to the on-notice locations. Fortunately, for Puerto Rico and the Bahamas; damage for Cotton end users were nominal and only required consulting and crisis leadership assistance. Along the United States East Coast Cotton was on-notice for over 2,552 client nodes and is currently working in North Carolina, Virginia, New Jersey, and Vermont. While this was a broad storm with a long path, the damage sustained was significantly less than had been predicted. The damage was primarily in the categories of widespread power outages, damaged utility infrastructure, and flooding of low lying areas, roads, rivers, streams and hundred year flood plains.
Cotton’s deployment quickly revealed the overall damage was more significant inland than coastal and to the residential areas and small to midsize enterprises. Larger enterprises were impacted in low lying areas and near rivers and streams. Cotton’s USG, DoD, large Retail, Healthcare, Hospitality and Manufacturing portfolios largely escaped significant damage.
Forward Involvement
Now in the reconstruction phase, Cotton will continue to facilitate operations that are enabling a full recovery to those affected from the Irene disaster in order to achieve a pre-loss condition, and return the enterprise back to the Partner Client through a complete host of ongoing catastrophe management and reconstruction services.
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