With Hurricane Irene Near, 370000 in New York City Get Evacuation Order

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo made that plea outside Albany as he met with National Guard members being deployed to Long Island to help with the storm. Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg issued his warning at a news conference in Coney Island.

“It is going to be a very serious thing as far as we can tell now,” the mayor said, flanked by Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly and other city officials. “This is going to be a very serious storm no matter what the track is.”

“Staying behind is dangerous, staying behind is foolish and it’s against the law,” he added.

Mr. Bloomberg said electricity could be turned off in some parts of Lower Manhattan and in other low-lying areas to avoid more severe damage from flooding, but he added that no decision had yet been made.

On Friday, city officials issued what they called an unprecedented order for the evacuation of about 370,000 residents of low-lying areas, warning that Hurricane Irene was such a threat that people living there simply had to get out. Officials also made what they said was another first-of-its-kind decision, announcing plans to shut down the city’s entire transit system Saturday — all 468 subway stations and 840 miles of tracks, and the rest of the nation’s largest mass transit network: thousands of buses in the city, as well as the buses and commuter trains that reach from Midtown Manhattan to the suburbs.

He added that residents should also “plan on the possibility of no power downtown.”

A Con Ed spokesman, Alfonso Quiroz, said that the pre-emptive shutdown could allow workers to restore electrical power more quickly once the storm has passed.

Mr. Bloomberg acknowledged that while the city’s shelters have room for 71,000 people, there would not be the same number of beds. “We’ll make do with what we can,” he said.

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