Hurricane Irene remains on course to batter the east coast of the United States this weekend, as extraordinary images from space revealed the scale of the powerful storm.
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has urged residents to move to higher ground if necessary or even evacuate the city.
And US National Hurricane Centre boss Bill Read has warned that the storm could cause disruption well inland.
Irene has strengthened to a Category Three storm, with winds of 120mph (195km) as it wreaked havoc across the Caribbean and edged towards the US mainland.
The first hurricane of this year's storm season is expected to gather power as it races across the warm waters of the Caribbean in the next 48 hours.
It could be upgraded to a Category Four - classified as having winds of up to 155mph - within 24 hours.
Live television pictures from the International Space Station, orbiting the earth 200 miles up, showed the sheer size of Irene's cyclonic cloud.
Forecasters said it could threaten densely populated centres in the northeast, including New York and Philadelphia, with its predicted path also passing close by major tourist destinations on the coast of the Carolinas.
It is expected to miss Florida and Georgia.
Bill Read, director of the US National Hurricane Centre, said: 'The exact centre of the storm may actually stay pretty close to the coastline during the day on Saturday and then become a big threat for New England and perhaps Long Island on Sunday.
'Be advised, it is going to be a very large circulation as it moves north of the Carolinas.'
Irene would be the first hurricane to make direct landfall in the United States since Hurricane Ike hit Texas in 2008, and authorities have warned people to make emergency preparations.
Some islands off North Carolina's Outer Banks have already been evacuated.
People up and down the coast have been stocking up on food and water with shops also reporting a run on batteries and generators and plywood for boarding up windows.
Even if the centre of the hurricane stays offshore, forecasters said it could still lash cities including Washington and New York with rain and winds strong enough to knock out power, trigger coastal storm surges and cause flooding.
Laura Southard, emergency department spokeswoman for the state of Virginia, said: 'We are not paying attention just to the eye of the storm.
'We are looking at how wide it is, how large it is.'
US President Barack Obama, on holiday in Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts, has been briefed on plans put in place by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
At least one person died when Irene hit the island of Puerto Rico this week.
The storm has caused damage across the Caribbean and major cruise lines have rearranged itineraries for a dozen ships in the region.
Source: http://bigpondnews.com/articles/Environment/2011/08/26/US_east_coast_to_suffer_Irenes_wrath_654381.html
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has urged residents to move to higher ground if necessary or even evacuate the city.
And US National Hurricane Centre boss Bill Read has warned that the storm could cause disruption well inland.
Irene has strengthened to a Category Three storm, with winds of 120mph (195km) as it wreaked havoc across the Caribbean and edged towards the US mainland.
The first hurricane of this year's storm season is expected to gather power as it races across the warm waters of the Caribbean in the next 48 hours.
It could be upgraded to a Category Four - classified as having winds of up to 155mph - within 24 hours.
Live television pictures from the International Space Station, orbiting the earth 200 miles up, showed the sheer size of Irene's cyclonic cloud.
Forecasters said it could threaten densely populated centres in the northeast, including New York and Philadelphia, with its predicted path also passing close by major tourist destinations on the coast of the Carolinas.
It is expected to miss Florida and Georgia.
Bill Read, director of the US National Hurricane Centre, said: 'The exact centre of the storm may actually stay pretty close to the coastline during the day on Saturday and then become a big threat for New England and perhaps Long Island on Sunday.
'Be advised, it is going to be a very large circulation as it moves north of the Carolinas.'
Irene would be the first hurricane to make direct landfall in the United States since Hurricane Ike hit Texas in 2008, and authorities have warned people to make emergency preparations.
Some islands off North Carolina's Outer Banks have already been evacuated.
People up and down the coast have been stocking up on food and water with shops also reporting a run on batteries and generators and plywood for boarding up windows.
Even if the centre of the hurricane stays offshore, forecasters said it could still lash cities including Washington and New York with rain and winds strong enough to knock out power, trigger coastal storm surges and cause flooding.
Laura Southard, emergency department spokeswoman for the state of Virginia, said: 'We are not paying attention just to the eye of the storm.
'We are looking at how wide it is, how large it is.'
US President Barack Obama, on holiday in Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts, has been briefed on plans put in place by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
At least one person died when Irene hit the island of Puerto Rico this week.
The storm has caused damage across the Caribbean and major cruise lines have rearranged itineraries for a dozen ships in the region.
Source: http://bigpondnews.com/articles/Environment/2011/08/26/US_east_coast_to_suffer_Irenes_wrath_654381.html
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