(CBS/AP)
Hurricane Irene continued bearing down on the United States early Friday morning, threatening up to 65 million people from the Carolinas to New England. It may well be the strongest storm to slam the East Coast in seven years.
Thousands of vacationers are fleeing beaches and low-lying areas in North Carolina and Virginia already, and hurricane watches have been issued from North Carolina to New Jersey.
Video: Can cell phone networks handle Irene?
Video: Officials urge N. Carolina evacuations
Complete coverage: Hurricane Irene
Irene's projected path, which CBS News hurricane consultant David Bernard says most computerized models show unusual agreement on at this stage, has it bringing misery to Washington, New York and Boston, with a possible devastating strike directly on New York City over the weekend.
Bernard says Irene could reach Category 4 status before Friday daybreak on the East Coast as the storm plods through more warm water north of the Bahamas.
"This could be the beginning of another strengthening stage," says Bernard. "It's in ideal conditions for the next 24 to 36 hours."
National Hurricane Center storm tracker
The former chief of the National Hurricane Center called it one of his three worst possible situations.
"One of my greatest nightmares was having a major hurricane go up the whole Northeast Coast," Max Mayfield, the center's retired director, told The Associated Press.
He said the damage will probably climb into billions of dollars: "This is going to have an impact on the United States economy."
Airlines scrap 900 flights as Irene approaches
It is a massive storm - spanning as wide as 700 miles - with tropical-force winds extending almost twice as far as normal. Irene is about the same size as Katrina, which devastated New Orleans in 2005.
"It's not going to be a Katrina, but it's serious," said MIT meteorology professor Kerry Emanuel. "People have to take it seriously."
"The reason this can be a catastrophic track is because it allows major tidal flooding in the New York metropolitan area," says Bernard. "The storm will be enormous in size and the problems numerous, the most being perhaps millions of people without power." (
Click on player at left for more on the threat to New York City)
Irene was expected to come ashore Saturday in North Carolina with 115 mph winds and could dump a foot of rain.
Hurricanes are rare in the U.S. Northeast because the region's cooler seas tend to weaken storms as they approach, and they have to take a narrow track to strike New York without first hitting other parts of the coast and weakening there.
Officials in Ocean City, Maryland, ordered thousands of residents and tourists to abandon the beach community. In North Carolina, three coastal counties issued evacuation orders covering more than 200,000 people, including tourists and full-time residents. President Obama declared an emergency for the state, allowing for federal help.
Craig Fugate, the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said residents should pay attention to local broadcasters to see if an evacuation order is made. Among the most important tasks, he said, was figuring out a safe place to go before hitting the road.
"When you evacuate, you want to know where you're going and make sure you have somewhere to go, not just get on the road with everybody else and hope you find some place," Fugate said Thursday on CBS's "The Early Show."
Dania Armstrong of New York sat outside a motel smoking a cigarette while she waited for her family to get ready. Armstrong, her daughter and grandchildren had already been ordered off the North Carolina island of Ocracoke and planned to leave the town of Buxton soon.
"I've been coming down here for 50 years," she said. "I know what's coming. It's time to leave. You don't want to be here when it hits."
The U.S. Navy ordered ships to sea so they could endure the punishing wind and waves in open water.
In Washington, where residents were rattled by a rare earthquake Tuesday, officials warned people to be prepared for stormy conditions regardless of Irene's exact path and to stay away from the beaches in the region.
MLK memorial dedication cancelled due to Irene
New York is especially susceptible with its large subway network and the waterways around the city, Mayfield said.
"In many ways, a Category 2 or stronger storm hitting New York is a lot of people's nightmare," said Susan Cutter, director of the Hazards and Vulnerability Research Institute at the University of South Carolina.
(Credit: CBS/AP)By late Thursday, Irene had maximum winds of 115 mph and was centered about 490 miles south-southwest of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, the U.S. hurricane center said. It was traveling north-northwest at 14 mph. Center forecasters said strengthening of Irene was possible later Thursday and Friday.
Puerto Rico, which also was hit by Irene, was struggling with heavy flooding and landslides. On Tuesday, a 62-year-old woman died after trying to cross a swollen river in her car near San Juan, police said.
In the Dominican Republic, flooding, rising rivers and mudslides prompted the government to evacuate nearly 38,000 people. Authorities said a 40-year-old man was killed when floodwaters destroyed his home in Cambita, just west of Santo Domingo, and a 42-year-old Haitian migrant drowned in a surging river near the city of El Seibo. An 18-year-old woman also died after being swept away by a river in the province of San Cristobal.
In neighboring Haiti, Irene's outer bands killed two girls in the northern coastal city of Port-de-Paix, triggered landslides and flooded cultivated fields earlier this week, according to the U.N. Office for the Coordination for Humanitarian Affairs.
