VOA慢速英语2011--Hurricane Irene Hits Northeastern United

IN THE NEWS - Hurricane Irene Hits Northeastern United States

时事新闻 - 飓风艾琳席卷美国东北部

This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English.

这里是美国之音慢速英语时事新闻。

Emergency crews in the eastern United States are still working to help people affected 1 by Hurricane Irene. The hurricane struck the coast of North Carolina with winds of up to one hundred twenty kilometers an hour last Saturday. The storm weakened as it moved north. But Irene brought heavy rains and destructive winds to the densely 2 populated east coast.

美国东部的救援人员仍在继续帮助受飓风艾琳影响的人们。上周六，飓风袭击了北卡罗莱纳州海岸，风速高达每小时120公里。这次风暴在向北移动过程中逐渐减弱。但艾琳给人口稠密的东海岸带来了暴雨和极具破坏性的狂风。

Hundreds of thousands of people were told to leave areas likely to suffer flooding. That included parts of New York City where Mayor Michael Bloomberg ordered over two hundred fifty thousand people to evacuate 3.

数十万人被告知撤离可能遭遇洪水的地区，包括纽约市部分地区。纽约市长迈克尔·布隆伯格（Michael Bloomberg）下令250余万市民撤离。

Irene is blamed for more than forty deaths in the United States. Five deaths were reported in the Caribbean.

艾琳在美国造成了40多人死亡。据报告加勒比地区也有5人死亡。

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo estimated his state suffered one billion dollars in damage. Estimates place the total damage from the storm at about seven billion dollars. Insurance companies are expected to pay forty to fifty percent of these costs. But costs of lost trade for the travel industry, especially in North Carolina, will be high at a time when the nation’s economy is struggling. The government reported Friday that the national unemployment rate held at nine point one percent in August.

纽约州州长安德鲁·科莫（Andrew Cuomo）预计本州损失高达10亿美元。据预计，这次风暴造成的全部损失约为70亿美元，保险公司有望赔付其中的百分之四十到五十。但在美国经济陷入困境之际，旅游业中断造成的损失尤为严重，特别是北卡罗莱纳州。周五，政府报告称8月份美国失业率仍维持在9.1%。

High winds and flooding from Irene brought down electrical lines, causing about four million people to lose power. Days after the storm, hundreds of thousands were still without electricity.

艾琳带来的狂风和洪水毁坏了电力线路，造成约400万人断电。风暴过后数日，仍有几十万人没有恢复供电。

Many states in the path of Irene declared disasters. Governors in several states activated 4 over four thousand National Guard members to help in rescue and relief efforts.

艾琳席卷的几个州都宣布受灾。这几个州的州长动员了4000多名国民警卫队成员协助救灾工作。

In North Carolina, some communities near the ocean were flooded and cut off from the mainland. And the small northeastern state of Vermont was especially hard hit. Emergency workers have had to airlift food and supplies to thousands of people trapped by flood waters. Officials said it was the worst flooding in Vermont in almost one hundred years. This man describes what he saw in the community of Woodstock.

在北卡罗来纳州，一些临海的社区被淹，与陆地隔绝开来。东北部很小的一个州佛蒙特州受打击尤为严重。救援人员不得不向数千名被洪水围困的居民空投食物和生活用品。有关官员表示，这是佛蒙特州近一百多年来经历的最为严重的洪水。这位男子介绍了他在伍德斯托克社区看到的景象。

MICHAEL RICCI: “The water in the yard was almost up to the house, which is another ten feet above this level, which is probably fifteen or twenty feet above the normal river level. So the water was really, really up very high. And the force of it was beyond our comprehension.”

迈克尔·里奇：“院子里的水几乎和房子一样高，水深高达10英尺，这可能比正常河流水平面高出了15到20英尺。水涨得真的非常高，同时水流的冲击力也超出了我们的想象。”

President Obama has made major disaster declarations for North Carolina, New York, New Jersey 5, Vermont and Puerto Rico. Emergency declarations were made for all coastal 6 states from North Carolina to Maine. These declarations release federal aid through FEMA -- the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

奥巴马总统宣布北卡罗莱纳州、纽约、新泽西州、佛蒙特州和波多黎各为重灾区，同时宣布从北卡罗莱纳州到缅因州的所有沿海各州进入紧急状态。发布这些声明后，联邦紧急事务管理署即可向这些州发放联邦援助。

Roger Pielke is a professor in environmental studies at the University of Colorado. He says the economic costs of hurricanes have grown many times over the years. This is because millions of people in the United States have crowded coastal areas that are often affected by storms.

罗杰·皮尔科（Roger Pielke）是科罗拉多大学一名环境学教授。他表示，飓风造成的经济损失多年来已经增长数倍。这是因为美国数百万人涌入到容易受风暴影响的沿海地区。

ROGER PIELKE: “Along the entire coast from Texas all the way up through Maine in the United States, there are today very few locations where a hurricane can make landfall without causing an enormous amount of damage.”

皮尔科：“从德克萨斯州到缅因州的整个海岸，如今飓风几乎在任何地方登陆都难以避免重大损失。”

Still, Roger Pielke credits stronger building rules and better weather predictions for saving lives and limiting costs.

尽管如此，皮尔科赞扬更严格的建筑规范和更准确的天气预报拯救了生灵并降低了损失。

Irene is unlikely to be the only major hurricane this year. Two powerful storms are threatening the coastal United States. One is nearing the Gulf 7 of Mexico, the other is in the Atlantic Ocean.

艾琳不可能是今年唯一的大型飓风。还有两股强风暴正威胁美国沿海地区，其中一股邻近墨西哥湾，另一股位于大西洋。

September is normally the most active month of the hurricane season. Experts predicted eight to ten hurricanes in two thousand eleven. That is higher than normal.

9月通常是飓风季中最为活跃的一月。专家预测，2011年美国将遭遇8到10次飓风，这一数字远远高出正常水平。

And that's IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. For transcripts 8 and mp3 of our programs, go to voanews.cn. And follow us on Facebook and Twitter at VOA Learning English. I'm Steve Ember.