MOREHEAD CITY, N.C. — Whipping up trouble before ever reaching land, Hurricane Irene zeroed in Friday for a potentially catastrophic run up the Eastern Seaboard.
More than 2 million people were told to move to safer places, and New York City ordered its entire network of subways shut down for the first time because of impending weather.
As the storm’s outermost bands of wind and rain began to lash the Outer Banks of North Carolina, authorities in points farther north begged people to get out of harm’s way.
The hurricane lost some strength but still packed 100-mph sustained winds. Officials in the Northeast, not used to tropical weather, feared it could wreak devastation.
“Don’t wait. Don’t delay,” said President Barack Obama, who cut short his summer vacation by a day and returned to Washington. “I cannot stress this highly enough: If you are in the projected path of this hurricane, you have to take precautions now.”
Senior hurricane specialist Richard Pasch of the National Hurricane Center in Miami said there were signs that the hurricane might have weakened slightly, but strong winds continued to extend 100 miles from its center.
The moment today when the eye of the hurricane crosses land “is not as important as just being in that big swath,” Pasch said. “And unfortunately, it’s a big target.”
Warnings from N.C. to N.Y.
Hurricane warnings were issued from North Carolina to New York, and watches were posted farther north, on the islands of Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard off Massachusetts.
Evacuation orders covered at least 2.3 million people, including 1 million in New Jersey, 315,000 in Maryland, 300,000 in North Carolina, 200,000 in Virginia and 100,000 in Delaware.
“This is probably the largest number of people that have been threatened by a single hurricane in the United States,” said Jay Baker, a geography professor at Florida State University.
New York City ordered more than 300,000 people who live in flood- prone areas to leave, including Battery Park City at the southern tip of Manhattan, Coney Island and the beachfront Rockaways. But it was not clear how many would do it, how they would get out or where they would go. Most New Yorkers don’t have cars.
On top of that, the city said it would shut down the subways and buses at noon today, only a few hours after the first rain is expected to fall. The transit system carries about 5 million people on an average weekday, fewer on weekends. It has been shut down several times before, including during a transit workers’ strike in 2005 and after the Sept. 11 attacks a decade ago, but never for weather.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg said there was little authorities could do to force people to leave.
“We do not have the manpower to go door-to-door and drag people out of their homes,” he said. “Nobody’s going to get fined. Nobody’s going to go to jail. But if you don’t follow this, people may die.”
Shelters were opening Friday afternoon, and the city was placed under its first hurricane warning since 1985.
Transit systems in New Jersey and Philadelphia also announced plans to shut down, and Washington declared a state of emergency.
Boisterous New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie demanded people “get the hell off the beach” in Asbury Park and said: “You’re done. Do not waste any more time working on your tan.”
Thousands of people were already without power. In Charleston, S.C., several people had to be rescued after a tree fell on their car.
Defying the orders, hardy holdouts in North Carolina put plywood on windows, gathered last-minute supplies and tied down boats. More than half the people who live on two remote islands, Hatteras and Ocracoke, ignored orders to leave. As time to change their minds ran short, officials ordered dozens of body bags. The last ferry from Ocracoke left at 4 p.m. Friday.
“I anticipate we’re going to have people floating on the streets, and I don’t want to leave them lying there,” said Richard Marlin, fire chief for one of the seven villages on Hatteras. “The Coast Guard will either be pulling people off their roofs like in Katrina or we’ll be scraping them out of their yards.”
First Katrina, now Irene
Officially, Irene was expected to make landfall today near Morehead City, N.C., on the southern end of the Outer Banks, the barrier island chain.
But long before the eye crosses the coastline, the blustery winds and intermittent rains were already raking the coast. By Friday evening, 50-mph winds were measured at Wrightsville Beach, N.C.
Some took to shelters for protection. Susan Kinchen, her daughter and 5-month-old granddaughter came to West Carteret High School with about 50 others. She said they didn’t feel safe in their trailer, and the Louisiana native was reminded of how her old trailer lost its roof to Hurricane Katrina, almost six years ago to the day, on Aug. 29, 2005.
“We live in a trailer with her,” said Kinchen, referring to the infant. “I’m not taking any chances.”
Hurricane center meteorologist David Zelinsky said earlier Friday that he expected the storm to arrive as a Category 2 or 3 hurricane. Later in the day, other forecasts showed it would strike most of the coast as a Category 1.
The scale runs from 1, barely stronger than a tropical storm, to a monstrous 5. On Friday night, Irene was a Category 2.
The hurricane center said Irene could weaken into a tropical storm before reaching New England but that even below hurricane strength, it would be powerful and potentially destructive.
Regardless of how fierce the storm is when it makes landfall, the coast of North Carolina was expected to get winds of more than 100 mph and waves perhaps as high as 11 feet, Zelinsky said.
“This is a really large hurricane, and it is dangerous,” he said. “Whether it is a Category 2 or 3 at landfall, the effects are still going to be strong. I would encourage people to take it seriously.”
After the Outer Banks, the next target for Irene was the Hampton Roads region of southeastern Virginia, a jagged network of inlets and rivers that floods easily. Emergency officials have said the region is more threatened by storm surge, and the high waves that accompany a storm, than wind.
