http://www.theblaze.com/stories/irene-makes-landfall-crushes-two-north-carolina-piers/
Irene Makes Landfall, Crushes Two North Carolina Piers
MOREHEAD CITY, N.C. (AP) — Hurricane-force winds and drenching rains from Irene battered the North Carolina coast early Saturday as the storm began its potentially catastrophic run up the Eastern Seaboard. More than 2 million people were told to move to safer places, and New York City ordered the nation’s biggest subway system shut down for the first time because of a natural disaster.
The National Hurricane Center in Miami said Irene’s maximum sustained winds were around 85 mph on Saturday morning, down from about 100 mph a day earlier. But they warned the hurricane would remain a large and powerful one throughout the day as it trekked toward the mid-Atlantic.
“The hazards are still the same,” NHC hurricane specialist Mike Brennan said. “The emphasis for this storm is on its size and duration, not necessarily how strong the strongest winds are.”
Hurricane-force winds first arrived near Jacksonville, N.C., around 6:15 a.m. A little more than an hour later, the storm‘s center passed near the southern tip of North Carolina’s Outer Banks. The eye of the storm is typically calm, but the storm’s wind and rain are far from over. Forecasters said the landfall has little significance, as Irene remains a dangerous storm.
For the rest of the article you must go to the Blaze.
My thoughts and prayers are with those who are living in the path of Irene.
