Hurricane Irene Impacting North Carolina, Pennsylvania Bracing for Wind and Rain From the Storm

The Outer Banks of North Carolina are taking  direct hit from Hurricane Irene, but preparations are  underway from the Carolinas north, including Pennsylvania, as the storm barrels up the coast.   

Bill Read, Director of the National Hurricane Center, says the rest of the Eastern Seaboard is well within its path as it moves up the coast. He says regardless of where the center goes, the entire Northeast corridor faces the risk of heavy rains, high winds and coastal flooding.

Craig Fugate, Director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, says they’ve deployed manpower along the coast. He says they have teams as far south as North Carolina and up the east coast including Maine.

Fugate says this will not just be a coastal storm, they expect the risk of power outages and flooding inland. He says wind field of the storm is very large and sustained tropical storm force winds can cause a lot of tree damage.

 

In Ocean City Maryland, a mandatory evacuation was ordered.  Phase three of the resort town’s hurricane action plan took effect at midnight Thursday.  All visitors were asked to return home and year round residents were told to leave the town until the danger passes. Only emergency personnel are remaining in town and all incoming traffic is now limited to emergency personnel. No other vehicles will be permitted to enter  except by approved authority. The last time the town ordered a mandatory evacuation was for Hurricane Gloria in 1985. International student workers were evacuated earlier on Thursday.