Bloomberg Hurricane Irene Strikes Bahamas on Path Toward U.S. East Coast

August 25, 2011, 6:08 AM EDT

By Conor Sullivan and Brian K. Sullivan

Aug. 25 (Bloomberg) -- Hurricane Irene, the strongest Atlantic storm to threaten the U.S. since 2005, struck the Bahamas on a course that may take it near North Carolina this weekend and New England next week.

The Category 3 storm, packing maximum sustained winds of 115 miles (185 kilometers) per hour, triggered a hurricane watch for the North Carolina coast, as it churned 735 miles south of Cape Hatteras, the National Hurricane Center said in an advisory for 5 a.m. Miami time.

The hurricane will continue moving across central Bahamas during the next few hours as it heads northwest at 12 mph, and may strengthen today or tomorrow. It will pass “well offshore of the east coast of central and north Florida tonight and early Friday,” the advisory said.

“Irene is a massive hurricane and that’s what’s so bad for the Bahamas,” Dave Samuel, a meteorologist at AccuWeather Inc., said yesterday. “We’re just watching it decimating Crooked Island of the Bahamas. It is moving slow and it is huge.”

The center issued a hurricane watch for the North Carolina coast from Surf City north to the Virginia border, heralding hurricane-force winds are possible in the next 48 hours. The center’s latest projection for the storm path shows it curving northwards and brushing the North Carolina coast on the weekend, either late Aug. 27 or early Aug. 28, before continuing north toward New England. Forecast models show a wide variability in the possible track.

Shifting Storm Track

The path could shift 100 miles or more and may change several times, according to Jack Beven, a senior hurricane specialist at the center in Miami.

The last hurricane to strike the U.S. was Ike in 2008, a Category 2 storm when it went ashore near Galveston, Texas. The most recent major hurricane, one with winds of at least 111 mph, was Wilma in 2005. The last hurricane to strike Massachusetts was Hurricane Bob in 1991.

Irene’s hurricane-strength winds of at least 74 mph extend 70 miles from its core, and tropical-storm-strength winds reach out 255 miles.

Residents and visitors on North Carolina’s Ocracoke Island have started evacuating, said Jeff Hibbard, deputy director of emergency services for Hyde County. Farther up the coast, residents from Virginia to Canada will probably feel the storm’s power.

The U.S. Navy ordered all its ships in the Hampton Roads, Virginia, area to prepare to get under way within 24 hours as a precaution for the approaching hurricane, according to a press release from the 2nd Fleet. A decision on whether the ships will actually depart will be made later based on updated weather forecasts.

In New York, the most populous U.S. city with 8.2 million residents, officials were opening the emergency operations center in Brooklyn, said Chris Gilbride, spokesman for the Office of Emergency Management.

Based on information received from the National Weather Service, city officials assume a “strong possibility” the storm “could impact New York City or Long Island directly.”

--With assistance from Simone Baribeau in Miami, Henry Goldman in New York, Barbara J Powell in Dallas, Catherine Dodge and David Lerman in Washington. Editors: Stephen Voss, Rob Verdonck
To contact the reporter on this story: Conor Sullivan in London at csullivan39@bloomberg.net. Brian K. Sullivan in Boston at bsullivan10@bloomberg.net;
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Steve Voss at sev@bloomberg.net.