Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina (CNN) -- Irene's expected path this weekend brought hurricane warnings Friday afternoon to New Jersey, New York and southern New England, where residents will see curtailed air, transit and road service.
As airlines canceled hundreds of flights, communities from the Carolinas to New England prepared for what President Barack Obama wagered could be a "hurricane of historic proportions." Coastal North Carolina was to feel the storm's fury first Saturday.
A hurricane warning was issued from north of Sandy Hook, New Jersey, to Sagamore Beach, Massachusetts. The warning area includes New York City, Long Island, Long Island Sound, coastal Connecticut, Rhode Island, Block Island, Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket.
A hurricane warning means sustained winds of 74 mph or higher are expected within 36 hours.
A tropical storm warning was issued from north of Sagamore Beach to the Merrimack River in Massachusetts. A watch was in effect from that river to Eastport, Maine.
A tropical storm warning indicates that sustained winds of 39 to 73 mph are expected within 36 hours. A watch means such winds are possible.
The city of New York issued what Mayor Michael Bloomberg said was its first mandatory evacuation order, covering low-lying areas of all five of the city's boroughs. About 250,000 people will be affected.
Authorities warned of widespread and prolonged power outages, flash flooding and storm surges that could flood low-lying communities and possibly inundate subway systems. The New York Metropolitan Transit Authority will shut down its system at noon Saturday.
New Jersey Transit also will shut down at noon, and the transit system in Philadelphia will halt service at 12:30 a.m. Boston said it intends to keep its system operating. The Garden State Parkway in New Jersey was closing 98 miles of southbound lanes Friday night.
Authorities urged residents who need to leave to do so immediately.
"The sun is shining, but don't be misled," Bloomberg said. "There is a very dangerous storm headed in our direction."
Irene was about 265 miles south-southwest of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, at 5 p.m. ET Friday, according to the National Hurricane Center. The Category 2 storm had top sustained winds of 100 mph, down from 110 mph.
The center expects Irene to be a minimal hurricane by the time it gets to New England.
Still, Irene was expected to bring an ocean surge of up to 11 feet to coastal North Carolina, tearing away beaches and probably damaging homes, businesses and other structures before sliding up the East Coast to New England, Hurricane Center Director Bill Read said.
Storm surges of 4 feet to 8 feet are possible in the Virginia Tidewater region, with 3- to 6-foot surges further north along the New Jersey shore, Read said.
Even guests in Atlantic City's iconic casinos were being asked to leave immediately. And the boardwalk in Ocean City, Maryland, will be quiet during one of the busiest times of the year.
Some plucky businesses were digging in. A restaurant in Wilmington, North Carolina, posted a message reading, "We are open until the letters fly off this sign," CNN affiliate WRAL reported.
Steve Aarthun, a resident of Wilmington, was preparing for his first hurricane. His wife, Sally, has seen three. They bought a generator, stocked up on bottled water and flashlights, and filled the bathtub with water.
"I feel the lull," Aarthun said mid-afternoon Friday. "You just have the sense it is coming."
The couple lives about a mile from the ocean and were hopeful they could avoid the storm surge.
While the first rain bands hit the coastal areas of South and North Carolina on Friday afternoon, it will be either late Friday night or early Saturday before hurricane-force winds hit the area.
North Carolina authorities reported evacuations were going smoothly. But not everyone was choosing to leave.
Charles Carawan said he planned to stay, along with his wife, son and $500,000 worth of crab stored at his seafood packaging business.
"I have nowhere else to go," Carawan said.
Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley said anyone who doesn't leave is making a mistake.
"Anybody that thinks that this is a normal hurricane and that they can just stick it out is being both selfish, stupid and also diverting essential public safety assets away from the task at hand, which is safeguarding lives and getting people out of the way," O'Malley said. "It is the height of selfishness for people not to evacuate. One weekend of inconvenience staying with friends or family on higher ground is a small price to pay to protect life."
Exactly where the storm will strike remained uncertain, but with hurricane-force winds extending 90 miles from the storm's center and tropical storm-force winds as far out as 290 miles, the impacts will be widely felt, forecasters warned.
As of Friday morning, it appeared the storm's center would make landfall between Cape Lookout and Hatteras in North Carolina, Read said.
"The timing is such that tonight into Saturday will be the worst for North Carolina and the Virginia Tidewater, Saturday into Sunday for the Delmarva (peninsula) and the eastern part of New Jersey, and then all day Sunday for New England," Read said.
Governments and private agencies launched an immense effort to prepare for the storm.
"All indications point to this being a historic hurricane," Obama said from Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, shortly before cutting short his vacation to return to Washington. The president was not in danger from the storm, his office said.
The federal government began moving tons of supplies to military bases and other staging areas.
Fairfax County, Virginia, activated its 76-member urban search-and-rescue team, last needed for the devastating March earthquake in Japan.
The U.S. Navy was sending 38 ships to sea, 13% percent of the deployable battle force vessels, a U.S. Navy official said.
The American Red Cross is sending equipment, supplies and volunteers to the region, gearing up to serve 250,000 meals a day, President Gail McGovern said. The relief agency and its partners could serve 1 million meals a day if necessary, she said.
Tens of millions of people could be affected by the storm as it moves up the densely populated East Coast, and officials urged residents to be prepared for the worst.
In New York, Bloomberg said, "The low-lying coastal areas that will be endangered most by storm surge include Coney Island and Manhattan Beach in Brooklyn, Far Rockaway and Broad Channel in Queens, South Beach, Midland Beach, and other low-lying areas on Staten Island, Battery Park City in Manhattan, and some small sections of the Bronx."
He added, "Now, we have never done a mandatory evacuation before, and we wouldn't be doing this now if we didn't think the storm had the potential to be very serious."
Frederico Martins of Williston, New York, found the bottled water and flashlight aisles at his local store cleaned out.
"People here are taking it very seriously. Better to be safe than sorry," Martins said, adding that it was "kind of cool" to see people getting ready for the storm.
It was a similar story in Plainfield, New Jersey, where generators were going fast.
"Ran into my neighbor, he was trying to buy a generator for his sister. He went to Lowe's and Home Depot and couldn't find one," said Mario Depeine. "He got some 'insider information' about when an expected shipment of generators will arrive. He has to be there to get one. They're going fast."
Amtrak, Greyhound and major U.S. airlines began canceling routes and flights.
American Airlines has tentatively canceled all flights in the Washington area from noon Saturday to noon Sunday, said spokesman Ed Martelle. The airline has also canceled all flights at Raleigh-Durham International Airport scheduled for Saturday.
AirTran Airways has canceled 265 flights for Saturday through Monday, according to an airline spokeswoman. JetBlue Airways has canceled almost 900 flights in the Northeast ahead of the storm. Most of those are Sunday and Monday flights out of the New York metro area and Boston, said spokesman Mateo Lleras.
Delta Air Lines will cancel 1,300 flights from Saturday to Monday, spokesman Anthony Black said. The carrier will not operate at any New York-area airports on Sunday, when the worst weather is expected to hit the region, he said.
US Airways is planning "significant flight schedule reductions" at a number of airports, including Reagan Washington National, John F. Kennedy International and Newark International.
Hurricane watches and warnings are in place from North Carolina to Massachusetts, the National Hurricane Center said. A hurricane warning means sustained winds of 74 mph or higher are expected within 36 hours. A watch means such winds are possible.
"Significant" storm surge flooding is possible within watch areas, the center said.
A tropical storm warning, which indicates sustained winds of 39 to 73 mph are expected within 36 hours, was in effect for the portions of coastal South Carolina.
Governors of coastal states from North Carolina to New York declared states of emergency as Irene rumbled nearer. Emergency declarations allow states to free funds and prepare resources that may be needed.
The last major hurricane to strike the United States was Wilma in 2005, which was a Category 3 at landfall in southwest Florida.
http://edition.cnn.com/2011/US/08/26/tropical.weather/index.html
