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US on high alert as Hurricane Irene closes in
Updated: 2011-08-27 13:34
(Agencies)
WILMINGTON - Hurricane Irene closed in on the US east coast on Friday, lashing North Carolina with ferocious winds and triggering emergency steps including unprecedented evacuations and transit shutdowns in New York.
"Tonight's the hard night. We're just waiting for it to hit," North Carolina Governor Bev Perdue told CNN.
Washington, D.C. and states from the Carolinas through Maine declared emergencies due to Irene, a nearly 600 mile (960 km)-wide hurricane that put 55 million Americans on alert and threatened to cause billions of dollars in damage.
"The core of the hurricane will approach the coast of North Carolina tonight and pass near or over the North Carolina coast Saturday morning," the US National Hurricane Center said in an advisory on Friday night.
President Barack Obama said the impact of the unusually large storm could be "extremely dangerous and costly" for a nation that still recalls the destruction of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
"All indications point to this being a historic hurricane," Obama said.
At 11 pm EDT (0300 GMT on Saturday), Irene's center was 140 miles (225 km) south of Cape Lookout, North Carolina, and churning north-northeast at 13 miles (20 km) per hour.
Hundreds of thousands of residents and vacationers were evacuating from Irene's path.
A quarter of a million New Yorkers were ordered to leave homes in low-lying areas, including the financial district surrounding Wall Street in Manhattan, as authorities prepared for a dangerous storm surge and flooding on Sunday in the city and farther east on Long Island.
Some New York hospitals in flood-prone areas were evacuating patients and the mass transit system, which carries 8.5 million people on weekdays, was due to start shutting down around noon (1600 GMT) on Saturday.
"We've never done a mandatory evacuation before and we wouldn't be doing it now if we didn't think this storm had the potential to be very serious," Mayor Michael Bloomberg told a news conference.
GETTING READY
As authorities prepared for a potential major disaster on the densely populated east coast, airlines canceled about 7,000 flights and moved planes out of Irene's path.
All three major New York area airports were to close to incoming flights at noon (1600 GMT) on Saturday, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said.
Officials were taking every precaution with Irene because they remember all too well how Katrina swamped New Orleans, killing up to 1,800 people and causing $80 billion in damage.
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said the military stood ready to aid in the response to Irene, with more than 100,000 National Guard forces available if needed in eastern states.
People in coastal communities stocked up on food and water and tried to secure homes, vehicles and boats. Cities, ports, hospitals, oil refineries and nuclear plants activated emergency plans.
The earliest edges of Irene toppled trees, caused localized flooding and knocked out power to 7,600 residents of Wilmington, North Carolina by Friday night.
People in a shelter at a local school said they feared the storm's impact but were reluctant to evacuate entirely.
"We were going to go to Charlotte but we were told we might not be able to get back if there was a lot of damage," said Chastity May, 34, as she watched over her 4-year-old son.
Some were looking to capitalize on the approaching storm.
Greg Bayly, 52, and Scott Olden, 24, were selling generators out of a rented cargo truck along a busy Wilmington street that leads out to nearby beaches. Bayly said the pair could process credit cards to complete purchases, despite the rapidly deteriorating weather conditions.
US federal and state leaders, from Obama downward, urged the millions of Americans in the hurricane's path to prepare and to heed evacuation orders if they received them.
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