Hurricane Irene Draws a Bead on East Coast

Posted on Aug 24, 2011

AP / NOAA

Nature is giving jittery East Coast residents no rest after Tuesday’s 5.9 magnitude earthquake. Hurricane Irene, a Category 3 storm carrying winds of up to 115 miles per hour, is making its way toward the Eastern Seaboard after giving the Bahamas a whipping.

FEMA is urging people all along the Mid-Atlantic, from North Carolina through New England, to prepare for the storm and possible evacuation.

Track the storm at the National Hurricane Center website here. —ARK

ABC News:

Hurricane Irene strengthened overnight to a category 3 storm, wreaking havoc across the Caribbean and sparking evacuation orders in coastal North Carolina.

... Craig Fugate, the manager of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, urged those from the Mid-Atlantic region to New England to start preparing now for the possibility of the hurricane’s landfall.

“It’s going to be close and whether we get a brush or whether we have a landfall, it’s too early to say,” Fugate said. “Go ahead and make sure you’re ready and then if evacuations are required, heed those evacuation orders. The Hurricane Center says this storm is going to grow and strengthen ... and it’s really something people need to be prepared now for so they can be ready if they have to act.”

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