By Basil Katz and Edith Honan
NEW YORK, Aug 27 (Reuters) - Times Square emptied out and evacuation shelters filled up as New York City shut down on Saturday ahead of Hurricane Irene, which charged up the East Coast on a direct path toward the world financial capital.
New Yorkers deserted the streets and took cover from a rare hurricane headed their way -- only five have tracked within 75 miles (120 km) of the city since records have been kept. The full impact of heavy rain, powerful winds and a surging sea was expected through Sunday morning.
Rain was reported throughout the city around 8 p.m (2400 GMT), and the National Weather Service issued a tornado watch in addition to the hurricane warning.
After Mayor Michael Bloomberg ordered the unprecedented evacuation of 370,000 people living in neighborhoods near the water's edge, more than 3,700 took refuge in the city's shelters, thousands more fled to the homes of friends or relatives, and others defiantly stayed behind.
While shelters were mostly empty, others such as the John Adams High School in Queens overflowed.
A smattering of food and liquor stores stayed open while the public transit system that moves 8.5 million people each weekday halted operations, also a first, as the giant 580-mile (930-km)-wide storm unleashed 8O miles per hour (130 km per hour) winds, grounding aircraft along the eastern seaboard.
At Brooklyn Tech High School shelter, evacuees watched weather reports on a large television screen in the auditorium while others dined on mozzarella sticks, string beans, milk and apple sauce.
"I didn't want to leave (home), I wanted to stay, but I feared for my life. I didn't want to get stuck in the dark and in the flood," said Margie Robledo, 58, of Coney Island, who just arrived in New York from Puerto Rico, where the storm had hit days earlier.
CALM IN THE DANGER ZONE
Others defied the evacuation order after Bloomberg announced police would not enforce it. Despite the persistent warnings and ominous skies, the neighborhood around Brooklyn's Coney Island -- within the danger zone -- was calm. Parked cars lined the streets, and there was no sign of a mass exodus.
"They are right, we should be evacuating, but we are not," said John Visconti, 47, who owns an auto repair business and lives on the ground floor of his building in the nearby Brighton Beach area of Brooklyn. "We just want to stay home and hope for the best. We should be OK."
The evacuation zones included shiny apartment buildings in Manhattan's wealthy Battery Park City, working class Red Hook in Brooklyn and run-down public housing in Coney Island -- all neighborhoods at the water's edge.
"If the neighborhood is eventually legitimately flooded, I have food and books and whiskey," said attorney Neal D'Amato, 31, sipping a beer at the Red Hook Bait and Tackle shop bar.
He said he would ride out the storm in his fourth-floor apartment.
In Times Square, the so-called crossroads of the world, tourists were left with limited options. Broadway shows were canceled, Starbucks stores closed as was McDonald's.
Many other chain stores and attractions for kids such as the Toys "R" Us flagship store and Hershey's chocolate emporium were also shuttered.
The Frames bowling alley in the Port Authority Bus Terminal was still open, and had no immediate plans to close early, despite few customers. There was still adult entertainment on the fringes of Times Square with peep shows and stores offering porn, sex toys and lingerie open for business.
Taxis were plentiful even though mass transit halted at midday, suggested most people were staying home.
The network of 468 subway stations, 324 bus routes and two commuter rail lines was unlikely to be open for Monday morning's commute, Bloomberg said, and electricity in lower Manhattan including Wall Street could be out for days if the utility Consolidated Edison (ED.N) decide to preemptively shut off power. The New York Stock Exchange expected a normal trading session on Monday. [ID:nN1E77Q0B6]
One of the danger zones, the Financial District surrounding Wall Street, was largely deserted, with clusters of pedestrians with suitcases hailing cabs to get to higher ground.
PLASTIC SHEETS AND SANDBAGS
Outside the W Hotel near the World Trade Center site of the Sept. 11 attacks, Tamara Steil, 57, who is visiting from Michigan, waited for a hotel shuttle to take her to a midtown Manhattan hotel.
"We were here to spend money on restaurants and bars, but all these places are closed," she said, as she shared a pack of beer with other stragglers.
The South Street Seaport, which on a typical summer Saturday would be full of tourists, was nearly abandoned, the storefronts and restaurants boarded up or covered in plastic sheets, sandbags protecting the doors.
At a Manhattan Home Depot store, store clerks said they planned to stay open throughout the storm, but early on Saturday it had already run out of flashlights, duct tape, rope and tarps.
Irina Katkov, 38, an office manager, who lives in a seven-story building near the Atlantic Ocean, said about half the people in the evacuation zone where she lives were staying put, herself among them.
"We're not scared, we are ready for the fun," Katkov said. "Cameras are ready, batteries are charged, can't wait." (Additional reporting by Martin Howell; Writing by Daniel Trotta; Editing by Xavier Briand and Philip Barbara)
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