Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy gave an address, shortly after 4 p.m. on August 25, concerning Fire Island and the possibly impending hit, on August 28, by Hurricane Irene.  The following are excerpts from his remarks:

“We are expecting the hurricane to be hitting Long Island on Sunday … We have to be prepared for something in excess of what we had for [Hurricane] Gloria in 1985 ... We’re going to see waves of 10 to 12 feet hitting the mainland, let alone Fire Island … We are calling for voluntary evacuation of Fire Island and there is the likelihood that there will be mandatory evacuation.  We will be making that decision tomorrow morning … We hope to have at least five shelters open in Suffolk County, working with the Red Cross … Cell phones may not be operational … Have a plan in place … Real bad weather will hit about 7 a.m. on Sunday, with the really bad storm kicking in between noon and 1 p.m. … We may close beaches … If you’re on Fire Island, the only way out is by ferry and you’ll need [proper] lead time … Start making your plan right now … The Long Island Rail Road is stopping service Saturday at 1 p.m. … LIPA [the Long Island Power Authority] will have 2,000 people ready to go if we have power outages. If that electric grid goes down, we will have a difficult situation.”

At this time officials have not issued a mandatory evacuation order. They have called only for voluntary evacuation, largely to avoid a rush Saturday evening or Sunday morning when the storm hits the island. Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy said Thursday that a possible mandatory evacuation may be issued beginning early Friday after he reviews the hurricane's path overnight. The weather is expected to be beautiful on Friday.

Events have been canceled in Fire Island Pines and Cherry Grove for the upcoming weekend.