It's only Friday, and the Hurricane Irene is due to hit New York late Saturday.  But already Wall Street institutions - like Goldman Sachs, American Express, the NYSE - find themselves in "no man's land." 

• New York Governor Andrew Cuomo already has declared a state of emergency. 
• Mayor Bloomberg has urged residents of low-lying areas to evacuate by 5 p.m. Saturday.
• All mass transit and commuter trains in and around New York City will stop running at noon on Saturday.

And then there's the Financial District.  Goldman and Amex are each located in New York City's "Zone A" which the city has designated as its most at-risk flood zone.  Only slightly more secure is the NYSE, which resides In "Zone C."  That neighborhood is supposed to be affected only if Hurricane Irene hits New York as a Category 3 or worse storm.  And then there's Deutsche Bank, whose offices are in Zone B, which has an even smaller chance of flooding.

Fortunately, most of New York's large investment banks are headquartered in midtown Manhattan - that's high enough in elevation to fall out of the city's designated flood zones.  The New York offices and headquarters of Bank of America, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan Chase are all in Midtown - and thus out of the flood zones. 

As of Friday afternoon, the Exchange plans to open Monday morning but, just in case, it's also working on a number of contingency plans should that not prove possible.   [Dealbook, 8/26/11]