The five main New York City-area airports planned to close to arriving passenger flights beginning at noon ET on Saturday, aviation officials said. New York's two airports are close to the water and could be inundated, as could densely packed neighborhoods, if the storm pushes ocean water into the city's waterways, officials said. But it was not clear how many would do it, how they would get out or where they would go. New York City ordered more than 300,000 people who live in flood-prone areas to leave, including Battery Park City at the southern tip of Manhattan, Coney Island and the beachfront Rockaways. 'That's going to cause the greatest loss of life.'īelow is a look at impacts and preparations by region: 1 killer,' said retired National Hurricane Center Director Max Mayfield. This massive, wet and slow-moving hurricane is forecast to soak a Northeast saturated by earlier rain and may come ashore at a time when tides are unusually high, making storm surge even worse - 4 to 11 feet with waves on top, forecasters say. With more coastal cities ordering evacuations ahead of Hurricane Irene, residents and tourists alike from North Carolina to New York City were moving toward higher ground. ET Saturday near Cape Lookout on North Carolina's Outer Banks, the National Hurricane Center said, but the storm's outer bands buffeted South Carolina Friday, flooding streets and downing power lines. At least 65 million people are in its projected track. East Coast, home to some of the country's most densely populated cities and costliest waterfront real estate, was expected to suffer a multibillion-dollar disaster. Irene's wrath in the Caribbean, including Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and the Bahamas, gave a preview of what might be coming to the U.S.: Power outages, dangerous floods and high winds that caused millions of dollars in damage.

Wind and rains knocked out power to about 45,000 customers along the coast, including a hospital.

Officials warned of dangerous rip currents. Long before the storm's eye crossed the coastline, rain and tropical storm-force winds already were pelting North and South Carolina as Irene trudged north, snapping power lines and flooding streets. ET Saturday as the storm lumbered north-northeastward at 14 mph. The storm's center was about 50 miles south of Cape Lookout, North Carolina, as of 4 a.m. Senior hurricane specialist Richard Pasch of the National Hurricane Center said there were signs that the hurricane may have weakened slightly, but strong winds continued to extend 100 miles from its center. 'I cannot stress this highly enough: If you are in the projected path of this hurricane, you have to take precautions now.'

Don't delay,' said Obama, who decided to cut short his summer vacation by a day and return to Washington. President Barack Obama, speaking from Martha's Vineyard Island off the coast of Massachusetts before ending his vacation early, said all indications point to the storm being a historic hurricane.

'The emphasis for this storm is on its size and duration, not necessarily how strong the strongest winds are.'Īs the storm's outermost bands of wind and rain began to lash islands off the coast of the southern state of North Carolina, authorities in points farther north begged people to get out of harm's way. 'The hazards are still the same,' NHC hurricane specialist Mike Brennan said. The National Hurricane Center in Miami said early Saturday Irene had weakened to a Category 1 storm with top sustained winds down to 90 mph from 100 mph overnight, but warned that it would remain a hurricane as it moves up the mid-Atlantic coast, even after losing some more strength once it hits land.

Tidal surge or high noon wow