Hurricane Irene Strikes North Carolina – Cat 1 Storm at Landfall
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Perdue: “I want to see the damage with my own eyes,” but must wait until conditions are safe. Urges citizes to exercise caution. #NCIrene
Rain falling in southern NJ;’rain is coming in a bit early but this is because Irene has grown in size, not moving faster’- @nynjpaweather
Some 47,000 customers without power in northeastern NC, southeastern Va. from Hurricane Irene – Dominion Resources via @Reuters
More than 8,000 flights canceled this weekend #Irene – @flightaware
About 200,000 in North Carolina have lost power, according to electric utility @ProgressEnergy #Irene
Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina (CNN) — Somewhat weakened but still ferocious, Hurricane Irene slammed into the North Carolina coast Saturday morning, drenching the coastline and starting an ominous northward march up the Atlantic Seaboard.
The massive Category 1 hurricane made landfall near Cape Lookout around 7:30 a.m. with top sustained winds of 85 miles per hour thrashing sand and water in every direction.
Kitty Hawk braced next for a nasty right hook from Irene.
Ten of thousands of people in North Carolina were without power as reports of damage started filtering in.
About 190,000 customers of Progress Energy lost power, said company spokeswoman Lauren Bradford. Gusty winds will affect restoration efforts even with tripled crews, she said.
In nearby Ocracoke, at the southern end of the Outer Banks, a couple of hundred residents riding out the storm lost power early Saturday morning. Their power lines are strung along poles mounted on the highest sand dunes.
“The power went off for good around 5 a.m.,” said Clayton Gaskill, who had been trying to keep the island’s tiny radio station, WOVV, running through the night. “We won’t be back on the air until the storm goes by, because there’s no shelter for the portable generators,” he said in a text message to CNN.
In Atlantic Beach, which did not feel the full brunt of the storm, a hotel face ripped away and part of a pier was washed into the raging sea. Walls of water came gushing onto land, flooding waterfront roads.
Hurricanes usually weaken over land, but Irene’s first U.S. target, the slivers of North Carolina islands in the Atlantic, are marshlands surrounded by water and Irene is expected to keep churning with hurricane force.
The National Hurricane Center said extremely dangerous storm tide could raise water levels by as much as 9 feet in some parts of North Carolina. It also warned of the possibility of tornadoes touching down.
In its northward run, Irene is expected to cause trouble all the way up to Boston this weekend. Parts of New York City, including sea-level lower Manhattan, braced for major flooding.
New York has ordered mandatory evacuation for 370,000 of its residents.
Irene prompted the cancellation of hundreds of airline flights, the imminent shutdown of the New York subway system and an unprecedented mandatory evacuation in parts of “the city that never sleeps.”
Forecasters expect Irene to bring deadly storm surge, heavy rainfall and misery to millions.
As of 8 a.m. ET Saturday, Hurricane Irene was centered about 5 miles north of Cape Lookout. It was moving north-northeast at 14 miles per hour, the hurricane center said.
An ocean surge of up to 11 feet is possible in coastal North Carolina, tearing away beaches and probably damaging homes, businesses and other structures before the storm slides up the East Coast to New England, said Bill Read, the Hurricane Center director.
A storm surge also will raise water levels up to 4 to 8 feet above ground level in areas stretching from the North Carolina-Virginia border to Cape Cod, Massachusetts.
“The surge will be accompanied by large, destructive and life-threatening waves,” the hurricane center said.
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