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By Neil Hartnell | Reuters – 
(AP Photo/Lynne Sladky) - Click to see more images of Hurricane Irene.
From the Carolinas to Cape Cod, states, cities, ports, industries, oil refineries and nuclear plants were scrambling to activate emergency plans while residents stocked up on food and water and worked to secure homes, vehicles and boats.
Ships of the U.S. Second Fleet were ordered out of port to ride out the expected powerful storm at sea, the navy said.
Irene, a major Category 3 hurricane now battering the low-lying Bahamas southeast of Florida, was expected to sweep up to land on Saturday on eastern North Carolina, before raking up the remaining Atlantic seaboard.
"The rest of the eastern seaboard is well within the path of this storm," National Hurricane Center Director Bill Read warned on Thursday. "Being a large hurricane, tropical storm-force winds will extend far inland."
After hitting the North Carolina coast, Read forecast Irene would be a less intense but still dangerous Category 2 storm on the five-step Saffir-Simpson intensity scale, as it moved on Sunday into the Delaware, Maryland and Virginia coastal region and then on to New York on Monday. A Category 2 storm carries winds of 96 to 110 mph.
"Any further deviation left could bring direct impacts as far inland as the Washington-Baltimore area," Read said.
He said coastal evacuations were already under way in North Carolina and more were expected along the east coast as Irene approaches in the coming days. The states of North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland and New Jersey declared emergencies for Irene.
NEW YORK READIES
Irene will be the first hurricane to hit the U.S. mainland since Ike pounded Texas in 2008.
At 2 p.m. EDT, Irene was packing winds of 115 miles per hour and its center was about 105 miles north of Nassau. The hurricane knocked out power in the Bahamas capital and felled trees, blocking roads.
Earlier, local media reported homes washed away in low-lying Acklins Island in the Bahamas.
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the United States' most populous city was bracing to experience at least tropical storm conditions and flooding starting on Sunday from Irene, which could hit Long Island as a Category 2 hurricane.
"We hope for the best but prepare for the worst," Bloomberg told a news conference, adding some evacuations could be possible. The city was positioning rescue boats and helicopters, working to minimize street flooding and gearing up at hospitals. Evacuations were possible.
"The city has already seen the power of Mother Nature once this week, and Mother Nature may not be done with us yet," Bloomberg said, referring to Tuesday's earthquake that shook the East Coast, frightening millions but causing no deaths.
Forecasters warned that even if the center of Irene stays offshore as it tracks up the mid-Atlantic coast, its wide bands could lash cities like Washington and New York with winds and rain, knock out power and trigger flooding.
Oil terminals, refineries and nuclear plants from the Bahamas to Rhode Island were preparing.
Four catastrophe bonds totaling over $1 billion could leave financial investors exposed to insured losses if Hurricane Irene makes a U.S. landfall.
STORM SURGE WARNING
Forecasters went out of their way to emphasize the risks from Irene for the densely populated U.S. northeast, which has not experienced a direct hit from a hurricane in decades.
"Irene is capable of inundating portions of the coast under 10-15 feet of water, to the highest storm surge depths ever recorded," hurricane expert Jeff Masters of private forecaster Weather Underground wrote in his blog.
Masters gave special warning for the coast from Ocean City, Maryland, to Atlantic City, New Jersey, saying it was possible this stretch of coast would receive a direct hit from a Category 2 hurricane during the highest monthly tide.
Irene, which already caused the deaths this week of at least one person in Puerto Rico and two in the Dominican Republic, with others reported missing, had lashed the Bahamas on Wednesday and Thursday.
Commander Stephen Russell, director of the Bahamas National Emergency Management Agency, said there were reports of 90 percent of homes and structures destroyed in some settlements in the southeast Acklins and Crooked Islands.
No report on Bahamas casualties was immediately available.
Many tourists in the Bahamas had already fled the storm and major cruise lines canceled stops there.
Insurers kept a nervous watch in case Irene threatened wealthy enclaves such as the Hamptons, an eastern Long Island playground for New York's rich.
(Additional reporting by Tom Brown, Jane Sutton and Manuel Rueda in Miami, Daniel Trotta in New York; Vicki Allen and Laura MacInnis in Washington; Writing by Pascal Fletcher; Editing by Jackie Frank)
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