VOA慢速英语:Hurricane Irene Hits Northeastern United States

Emergency crews in the eastern United States are still working to help people affected 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 populated east coast.
美国东部的紧急救援人员仍在工作，以帮助受飓风艾琳影响的人。飓风在上周六袭击了卡罗莱纳州海岸，风速高达每小时120公里。该热带风暴在向北移动的过程中逐渐减弱。但是艾琳给人口稠密的东海岸带来了暴雨和破坏性的狂风。

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.
成千上万的人被告知要离开可能遭受水灾的地区。包括纽约市部分地区。市长迈克尔．彭博(Michael Bloomberg) 下令25万人撤离。

Irene is blamed for more than forty deaths in the United States. Five deaths were reported in the Caribbean.
据报道艾琳已经造成美国40多人死亡，加勒比海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估计损失高达10亿美元。据估计，此次风暴带来的总损失大约为70亿美元。保险公司预计将赔付40%到50%的费用。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导致电线断裂，造成大约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 over four thousand National Guard members to help in rescue and relief efforts.
艾琳过境处许多州宣布进入灾难状态。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，靠近海洋一些社区被洪水淹没，与内陆切断。东北部一小州佛蒙特州遭遇的冲击最为严重。紧急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。官员们，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.”
MICHAEL RICCI：“院子里的积水几乎已经像房子那样高，比正常的河流平面高出了15英尺至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, Vermont and Puerto Rico. Emergency declarations were made for all coastal states from North Carolina to Maine. These declarations release federal aid through FEMA -- the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
奥巴马总统已经宣布北卡罗来纳州，纽约州，新泽西州，佛蒙特州和波多黎各进入重大灾难状态。从北卡罗来纳到缅因州的所有沿海州都宣布进入紧急状态。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.
Roger Pielke是科罗拉多大学环境研究教授。他表示，飓风造成的经济损失多年来已经增长许多倍。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.”
Roger Pielke：“从得克萨斯州到缅因州的整个海岸，飓风在任何地方登陆都难以避免造成重大损失。”

Still, Roger Pielke credits stronger building rules and better weather predictions for saving lives and limiting costs.
尽管如此，Roger Pielke赞扬更加严格的建筑准则和更准确的天气预报挽救了许多人的生命，也降低了损失。

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 of Mexico, the other is in the Atlantic Ocean.
艾琳不可能是今年唯一的主要飓风。两场强风暴正在威胁美国沿海地区。其中一个在墨西哥湾附近，另外一个在大西洋沿岸。

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.
九月份通常是飓风季节最活跃的月份。专家预测美国在2011年将遭遇8到10次飓风，高于正常水平。