Following the Path of Hurricane Irene

  • August 27, 2011, New York, NY. A surfer is viewed on his bike through a car mirror in the Rockaways before the arrival of Hurricane Irene. The Rockaways were under mandatory evacuation orders.
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  • August 27, 2011, New York, NY. A man fills sand bags at 128th St. beach in the Rockaways in preparation for Hurricane Irene.
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  • August 27, 2011 in Virginia Beach, Va. Crae Kalista, left, and Joseph Lacy, of Virginia Beach, take a brief swim in the high surf in advance of Hurricane Irene.
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  • August 26, 2011, Norfolk, Virginia. An aerial view of Norfolk on Friday, as early storm clouds gather while Hurricane Irene approaches.
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  • August 27, 2011, New York, NY. A man evacuates lower Manhattan near Church Street with his daughter and bird before the arrival of Hurricane Irene.
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  • August 27, 2011, New York, NY. A liquor store is covered in plastic and sandbags along the South Street Seaport.
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  • August 26, 2011, New York, NY. A man in a Battery Park City high rise tapes his windows ahead of the arrival of Hurricane Irene. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg had ordered a mandatory evacuation of 250,000 residents of low-lying areas at the city's edges, including the World Financial Center.
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  • August 27, 2011, Nags Head, North Carolina. The Albemarle Sound floods Millers Restaurant shortly after Hurricane Irene barreled through the Outer Banks.
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  • Aug. 27, 2011, Newark, New Jersey. Jose Rivera, 70, pauses on his way home from a night club on Saturday night to light a cigarette as heavy rain from incoming Hurricane Irene covers the city.
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  • August 27, 2011, New York, NY. A crushed umbrella in a deserted Times Square during Hurricane Irene.
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  • August 27, 2011, New York, NY. Homeless New Yorkers sleeping in a subway entrance near Times Square.
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  • August 27, 2011, New York, NY. A lone man walks through an empty part of Times Square late in the evening during the storm.
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  • August 27, 2011, New York, NY. A late night scene outside the empty Port Authority Bus Terminal.
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  • August 28, 2011, New York, NY. SoHo residents Amy Eagle, right, and Rich Thompson take an early morning walk just before high tide along the World Financial Center Esplanade as the effects of Hurricane Irene are still felt in Manhattan.
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  • August 28, 2011, Southampton, NY. Waves crash around a home as Hurricane Irene arrives.
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  • August 28, 2011, Montauk, New York. Early Sunday the waves from Irene continued to pound Long Island's coast.
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  • August 28, 2011, New York, NY. A man walks in the early morning rain.
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  • August 28, 2011, New York, NY. A sign outside of the boarded-up Apple store on Fifth Avenue.
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  • August 28, 2011, New York, NY. Pedestrians stroll past a boarded up Bloomingdales on Sunday morning after the worst of the storm had passed.
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  • August 28, 2011, Brooklyn, NY. Downed trees lie on the street during heavy rain and winds from Hurricane Irene in New York City. While Hurricane Irene has now been downgraded to a tropical storm, it has knocked out power to more than 3 million people and is attributed to 10 deaths as it travels up the Eastern seaboard.
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  • August 28, 2011, New York, NY. An elderly man cleans his sidewalk on Sunday after the storm.
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  • August 28, 2011, New York, NY. Pedestrians walk around fallen trees near City Hall in downtown Manhattan.
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  • August 28, 2011, New York, NY. Residents inspect a tree knocked over by high winds from Hurricane Irene along Grand Avenue.
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  • August 27, 2011, New York, NY. Miguel Aguado, left, and Claus Espinosa, center, stand on a downed tree as Raul Hernandez leaps off it, after Hurricane Irene dumped more than six inches of rain in New York City. The hurricane hit New York as a Category 1 storm before being downgraded to a tropical storm.
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  • August 28, 2011, Nags Head, North Carolina. The morning after Hurricane Irene barreled through the Outer Banks, a statue of a dinosaur at Jurassic Putt Putt Golf remained toppled.
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  • August 28, Baltimore, MD. Neighbors inspect a scene where a large tree crushed a car in Baltimore.
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  • August 28, 2011, Portsmouth, Virginia. Workers begin to drain the Midtown Tunnel, a primary artery to Portsmouth, early on Sunday morning. The tunnel flooded during Hurricane Irene but was functional again by the afternoon.
    Matt Eich—Luceo for TIME
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  • August 28, 2011, Norfolk, Virginia. Jeff Paulson lights a cigarette while Jim "LT" Emmel cuts limbs from a fallen tree on Sunday morning after Hurricane Irene.
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  • August 28, 2011, Portsmouth, Virginia. A young man walks through a flooded street on Sunday after the storm.
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  • August 28, 2011, Portsmouth, Virginia. A steeple lies on the ground next to a church on Sunday.
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  • August 28, 2011, Portsmouth, Virginia. A resident rides his bicicyle past a flooded street in Portsmouth, Virginia on Sunday.
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  • August 28, 2011, Virginia Beach, VA. Michael Black, 10, is reflected in a broken window of his family's vacation house in Sandbridge the day after a tornado spawned by Hurricane Irene passed through the town.
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  • August 28, 2011, Virginia Beach, VA. Shane Argabright, left, a general contractor, surveys damage to a house belonging to Aileen Black, center, and Reed Black in Sandbridge the day after a tornado spawned by Hurricane Irene passed through the town in Virginia Beach.
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By TIME Photo Department

Over the weekend, Hurricane Irene crept north slowly and plotted her way up the eastern seaboard. Everyone from the Carolinas to New England prepared for the worst.

Making landfall on the morning of Aug. 27 in North Carolina’s Outer Banks, Irene continued to crawl up the coast through the day leaving a trail of downed trees and power lines as well as flooding all along the Carolina and Virginia coastlines.

To see more photos of Irene, click here for TIME.com’s extensive hurricane gallery.

Here is the storm in select pictures from some of our regular contributors, and wire photographers. You can click here to see TIME’s minute-to-minute coverage of the storm from the weekend.

 

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