Where is irene coming ashore

Authorities and experts said it was probably the greatest number of people ever threatened by a single storm in the United States, according to the Associated Press. Experts cautioned that although the storm was downgraded overnight to a Category 1 on the Saffir-Simpson scale, it was still unusually large and slow-moving, with tropical storm force winds extending more than miles from the center in some directions.

Irene was projected to hug the coast throughout Saturday and make landfall again around midday on Sunday, on Long Island just east of New York City. That track would give the city a bit of a break, because the east side of a hurricane is more severe than the west. Guiney said, adding that four to eight feet of storm surge were predicted for New York City. Craig Fugate, the Federal Emergency Management Agency director, also emphasized that residents should not lower their guards.

Fugate wrote Saturday morning on his Twitter feed, after Hurricane Irene was downgraded to a Category 1 storm, but was still dangerous. Though the bulk of the responsibility for hurricane preparations remains with local and state governments, the Obama administration, for a week now, has been playing a significant part.

As of Saturday, FEMA had 18 disaster incident response teams in place in coastal states and had stockpiles of food, water and mobile communications equipment ready to go. The Coast Guard had more than 20 rescue helicopters and reconnaissance planes in East Coast air stations ready to take off.

The Defense Department has another 18 helicopters in the northeast set aside for response, and it has coordinated with states along the storm path to ensure that about , National Guard members are available, if necessary, to respond. The American Red Cross also, as of Friday, had positioned over emergency response vehicles and tens of thousands of ready-to-eat meals in areas due to be hit by the storm.

At a. In Wilmington, there was a sense of having made it through the worst with relatively light damage. Trees and a few billboards are down, but flooding remains the big concern.

The ocean breached the dunes at the communities of Wrightsville Beach and Carolina Beach, and some homes are flooded. Judy and Greg Harvey had driven in from Philadelphia to care for his mother, who was in hospice, but the facility had shut down at 6 p.

Friday night and was keeping visitors out of the facility until noon Saturday, making a maddeningly long morning for the couple. Amtrak canceled train service for the weekend, and airlines began canceling flights, urging travelers to stay home. New Jersey Transit was set to suspend service then as well. At least , people in the city were ordered to evacuate from low-lying areas.

Organizations from the Pentagon to the American Red Cross were positioning mobile units and preparing shelters with food and water. The Defense Department amassed 18 helicopters to be ready with lifesaving equipment and put them on the Wasp, an aircraft carrier that was moved out to sea from Norfolk, Va. The town manager of Wrightsville Beach, Robert Simpson, said the ocean started pouring over the dunes on Friday and flooded the small beachside community.

With a storm this big and this wet — the hurricane center said its tropical-storm-force winds stretched 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 will most likely uproot trees from soggy ground and cause wide-scale loss of power.

In Reston, it was business as usual Saturday morning as residents waited for the storm. Grocery stores were quiet and well stocked at 8 a. Bernstein said the area could get two to four inches of rain. Category 1 hurricanes are defined as having a central barometric pressure of Irene had earlier in the week been a Category 3 storm, meaning winds up to mph and storm surges as high as 12 feet while causing "extensive" damage.

AccuWeather reported storm surges as high as 8. The threat level is considered "high" from Baltimore to the District of Columbia and "medium" or "low" in the far western parts of the state. The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch? Register for a user account. Brad Gerick , Neighbor.

Find out what's happening in Reston with free, real-time updates from Patch. Let's go! The storm was about miles south of the District of Columbia as of 8 a. About 29 million people are under a hurricane warning, according to The Weather Channel.