WILMINGTON, N.C. - The first punch from Hurricane Irene landed here Friday, foreshadowing with brutal authority what is to come as this vast storm, its most forceful winds stretching outward for 90 miles, churned north toward New York City.
Mandatory evacuations were ordered all along the Eastern seaboard as far north as the New Jersey shore and parts of New York City. Roads and highways were filled with caravans of ousted vacationers and homeowners, many fleeing under sunlit skies in anticipation of torrential rains, dangerous tidal surges and the likelihood of days without power.
With an estimated 55 million people in the path of a storm the size of California, the East Coast's major cities prepared for the worst. Hurricane watches were posted and states of emergency declared for North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York and New England.
Amtrak canceled train service for the weekend, and airlines began canceling flights, urging travelers to stay home. For the first time, New York City planned to shut down its entire mass transit and subway system - the world's largest - at noon today. New Jersey Transit was set to suspend service then, too.
Organizations from the Pentagon to the American Red Cross were positioning mobile units and preparing shelters with food and water. The Defense Department has amassed 18 helicopters to be ready with life-saving equipment; 10 are on the USS Wasp, a ship that has moved out to sea
"All of us have to take this storm seriously," said President Barack Obama, who cut short his family vacation on Martha's Vineyard, Mass., to return to Washington on Friday. "All indications point to this being a historic hurricane."
Although it slowed a bit during the day - sustained winds were about 100 mph - the unusually wide, wet and slow-moving Category 2 hurricane began to clip this coastal town with tropical storm-force winds in the late afternoon.
By early today, Hurricane Irene's eye should be about 66 miles from Cape Fear, N.C. Winds along the North Carolina coast will most likely hit 98 mph, with gusts of as much as 132 mph by this morning, according to the National Weather Service.
The storm is going to last most of the day in North Carolina. The eyewall should make landfall just east of Morehead City by 1 p.m. today, said Susan Buchanan, a spokeswoman for the National Weather Service. By then, Hurricane Irene might have weakened to a Category 1.
But with a storm this big and this wet - the National Hurricane Center in Miami said its tropical-storm force winds stretched out 290 miles - when it hits land, the power of the winds might not be as important as the amount of rainfall.
Such a huge dump of sustained rain along with high winds most likely will uproot trees from soggy ground and cause widespread loss of power.
Flooding, though, is the biggest concern, said Steve Pfaff, a meteorologist with the weather service's office in Wilmington. As much as 10 inches of rain will fall over the easternmost areas of North Carolina, overwhelming drainage systems.
Most airlines have grounded flights this weekend in the New York City area and beyond.
Federal officials warned that whatever the force of the winds, this storm is powerful and its effects would be felt well inland as far as West Virginia, western Pennsylvania, western New York and interior New England.
"This is not just a coastal event," said Bill Read, director of the National Hurricane Center.
He said he was highly confident of the storm's track, meaning it will be a rare hurricane that travels right along the densely populated Interstate 95 corridor.
In Washington, officials postponed the dedication of the new memorial to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., which had been scheduled for Sunday. Mayor Vincent Gray declared a state of emergency and said that starting today, the city would distribute five sandbags per household to those preparing their homes to withstand flooding.
Pepco, a major power provider for the area, warned of extensive blackouts and said it had engaged additional crews, including one from Ohio. The Metro system was expected to continue running, officials said.
With the worst of the storm expected to start in earnest in the small hours of the night, many in Wilmington hunkered down and waited for daylight, hoping against hope that the storm would continue to turn slightly eastward.
Even veterans of the deadly hurricanes Fran and Floyd, which hit North Carolina in the 1990s, were worried.
"It's a night you want to end," said Tommy Early, who spent much of Friday watching lines of people fill gas cans and fuel tanks.
