MALAYSIANS IN NEW YORK EVACUATE AHEAD OF HURRICANE LANDFALL

 MALAYSIANS IN NEW YORK EVACUATE AHEAD OF HURRICANE LANDFALL
    By Nani Rahayu Yusof
      
    NEW YORK, Aug 29 (Bernama) -- Malaysians students here and staff of the
Malaysian permanent mission to the United Nations have evacuated their homes
Saturday evening as Hurricane Irene began to batter this city.  
    
    Among the evacuees were Loh Teck Siong, counsellor and head of chancery of
the mission and his family. Loh said he, his wife and 13-year-old son had moved
to the mission by 3 pm Saturday.
    
    Joining him at the mission were the Defence Ministry's representative, Wan
Nazarudin Wan Ngah, his wife and their three children aged six, nine and 11.
    
    Loh said their homes were at 10, Waterside Plaza, on 23rd Street in
Manhattan facing the East River which is in the Zone A (prime) evacuation area.

    Meanwhile, in New Jersey, 20 Malaysian students, four of them girls, who are
in their final year of engineering at Stevens Institute of Technology in
Hoboken, were asked to evacuate on Friday. Hoboken lies on the west bank of the
Hudson River.
        
    The students, who live outside the institute, have moved in with their
Malaysian friends who stay within the campus area, said Farhan Hassan, 23, a
final-year chemical engineering student.  
    
    The eye of Hurricane Irene is expected to reach New York between 3 am and 7
am local time (between 3 pm and 7 pm Malaysian time) Sunday.  
    
    More than 1,000 Malaysians live in New York.
    
    The city has become a ghost town as everyone is staying in for safety. Shops
remain closed, and public transportation facilities including airports have shut
down.  
    
    -- BERNAMA