Tuesday, August 23, 2011

NATURAL CALAMITY: Hurricane Irene marks 1st big US threat in years!


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By CURT ANDERSON, Associated Press / 2 hrs 47 mins ago.

A resident walks along Los Yayales beach as strong waves crash due to the approach of Hurricane Irene to Nagua, in the northern coast of the Dominican Republic, Monday, Aug, 22, 2011. Hurricane Irene churned into a stronger Category 2 storm on Monday evening, after raking Puerto Rico with strong winds and rain that knocked out power to more than a million people, on a track that could carry it to the U.S. Southeast as a major storm by the end of the week. (AP Photo/Roberto Guzman)
Roberto Guzman - A resident walks along Los Yayales beach as strong waves crash due to the approach of Hurricane Irene to Nagua, in the northern coast of the Dominican Republic, Monday, Aug, 22, 2011. Hurricane …More...

MIAMI (AP) — Emergency officials from Florida to the Carolinas were closely watching Irene Tuesday as the first hurricane to seriously threaten the U.S. in three years churned over energizing tropical waters. The storm has already cut a destructive path through the Caribbean.
Forecasters say the hurricane could grow to a monstrous Category 4 storm with winds of more than 131 mph before it's predicted to come ashore this weekend on the U.S. mainland. The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami expected Irene to reach Category 3 strength on Tuesday, said spokesman Dennis Feltgen.
Officials could begin issuing watches for parts of the U.S. mainland later in the day. Because the storm is so large, Florida could begin feeling some effects from the storm late Wednesday.
Current government models have the storm's outer bands sweeping Florida late this week before it takes aim at the Carolinas this weekend, though forecasters caution that predictions made days in advance can be off by hundreds of miles. Georgia is also likely to be affected.
The last hurricane to make landfall in the U.S. was Ike, which pounded Texas in 2008.
For now, the first Atlantic hurricane of the season had maximum sustained winds early Tuesday around 100 mph (160 kph) and was centered about 55 miles (90 kilometers) northeast of Puerto Plata in the Dominican Republic. The hurricane was moving west-northwest near 10 mph (17 kph).



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