MOREHEAD CITY, N.C. - Long before ut hit the Philadelphia region, Hurricane Irene opened its assault on the Eastern Seaboard on Saturday by lashing the North Carolina coast with winds as strong as 115 mph and pounding shoreline homes with waves.
Farther north, from Baltimore to Philadelphia to New York, authorities readied a massive shutdown of trains and airports, with 2 million people ordered out of the way.
At least three people died because of the storm in the South.
The center of the storm, which was estimated to be some 500 miles wide, passed over North Carolina's Outer Banks for its official landfall just after 7:30 a.m. Saturday. The hurricane's vast reach traced the East Coast from Myrtle Beach, S.C., to just below Cape Cod. Tropical storm conditions battered Virginia, Maryland, and Delaware, with the worst to come.
On Saturday afternoon, forecasters said Irene's effects could be felt as far north as Canada even after it weakens. A tropical storm warning extended from the U.S. border to Nova Scotia's southern coast.
Irene weakened slightly, with sustained winds down to 85 mph from about 100 mph a day earlier, making it a Category 1 hurricane, the least threatening on the scale. The National Hurricane Center reported gusts of 115 mph and waves as high as seven feet.
At least three deaths were directly caused by the storm. In Nash County, N.C., emergency officials said a man was crushed by a large limb that blew off a tree. In Newport News, Va., a city spokeswoman said an 11-year-old boy was killed when Irene's winds sent a tree crashing through his apartment building. Winds had been gusting well above 60 mph in the area. Also in Virginia, someone was killed when a tree fell onto a car.
Hurricane-force winds arrived near Jacksonville, N.C., at first light, and wind-whipped rain lashed the resort town of Nags Head. Tall waves covered the beach, and the surf pushed as high as the backs of some of the houses and hotels fronting the strand.
"There's nothing you can do now but wait. You can hear the wind and it's scary," said Leon Reasor, who rode out the storm in the Outer Banks town of Buxton. "Things are banging against the house. I hope it doesn't get worse, but I know it will. I just hate hurricanes."
