Some 65 million people along the densely populated U.S. East Coast waited warily on Friday for a dangerous hurricane that could inflict billions in damages in an arc from Washington to Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York and Boston.
Rain carried by Hurricane Irene’s outer bands was already reaching the southeastern part of North Carolina said National Weather Service meteorologist Rachel Zouzias.
But the main thrust of the hurricane wasn’t expected in North Carolina until sometime on Saturday. Irene would be the strongest to strike the East Coast in seven years.
Hurricane Irene is bearing down on the U.S. East Coast and has turned into a frightening storm, according to an astronaut on the International Space Station.
NASA astronaut Mike Fossum said that Hurricane Irene, like all hurricanes, looks “terrifying from above,” and its evolution into a major storm this week has been unmistakable from orbit.
New York’s mayor has issued the city’s first-ever mandatory evacuation notices, as the US faces up to the arrival of Hurricane Irene.
The city’s transport systems, including the subway network, are to shut from 12:00 on Saturday (16:00 GMT).
Irene, a category two storm, is due to hit a swathe of east coast states. Boasting winds of 100mph (160km/h) as of 17:00 local time on Friday (21:00 GMT), Irene is due to make landfall in North Carolina on Saturday.
North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, New York and Connecticut have all been placed under states of emergency. The mayor of Washington DC also declared an emergency in the US capital.
