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By the CNN Wire Staff
August 27, 2011 12:45 p.m. EDT STORY HIGHLIGHTS * NEW: Damage reports roll in from North Carolina
* Power outages in Virginia leap as Irene makes its way north
* The storm remains a Category 1 hurricane with 85 mph winds
* Forecasters predict dangerous storm surge and heavy rainfall to
New England Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina (CNN) -- North Carolina dealt with
widespread power outages, flooding, and damage Saturday morning as
Hurricane Irene continued its northward trek along the East Coast, with
Norfolk, Virginia, and the Hampton Roads area next in its sights.
Irene made landfall about 7:30 a.m. Saturday near Cape Lookout, North
Carolina, according to the National Hurricane Center, bringing high
winds, heavy rain and a flooding storm surge that cut off thousands of
residents in Beaufort, Carteret and Pamlico counties, the state
Emergency Management Agency reported. The storm ripped off roofs and caused other damage to homes and
businesses in Hyde and Jones counties, according to the agency. A
tornado spawned by the storm destroyed five homes and and seriously
damaged a business in Tyrrell County, Sheriff Darryl Liverman told CNN
affiliate WITN. Every road in Jones County was blocked by downed trees, the state
emergency management agency reported. Irene also was blamed for a death Saturday morning, when a tree limb
fell on a man feeding livestock, an emergency official in Nash County
said. On Friday, a man suffered a heart attack as he put plywood over
the windows of his home in Onslow County, the state emergency agency
confirmed. As of 11 a.m. ET Saturday, the storm was centered about 50 miles west of
Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, moving northward at 15 mph, according to
the National Hurricane Center. The storm remained a Category 1
hurricane, with maximum sustained winds of 85 mph. Hurricane-force winds
extended as far as 90 miles from the center, the agency said. While some were discounting the weakening storm, Department of Homeland
Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said people still need to take it
seriously. "Irene remains a large and powerful storm," she said. President Barack Obama continued to closely monitor the storm, according
to White House officials. He traveled to FEMA's operations center
Saturday morning. Meanwhile, defense officials told 6,500 service
members to prepare to deploy to storm-ravaged regions should state
officials need them. In Virginia, where the U.S. Navy had sent much of its fleet to sea to
avoid the storm's wrath, the state Department of Emergency Management
said 119,000 electricity customers were already without power, adding
that conditions were changing rapidly. In Chesapeake, Virginia, iReporter Kathi Vanpeeren said Irene's winds at
Virginia Beach were violent Saturday morning. "I'm not panicked at this point, just kind of watchful and keeping an
eye on what's going on outside," she said. "Everybody around me has
pretty much prepared the best we can." Communities further north also continued to prepare for Irene's arrival.
Rainfall totals of 5 inches to 10 inches, with some isolated amounts of
a foot, are possible, as are storm surges of up to 8 feet as far north
as Cape Cod, Massachusetts, the weather service warned. Authorities in New York were shutting down the city's massive transit
system beginning at noon ET, and they continued to warn residents of
low-lying areas to evacuate immediately. The city ordered an
unprecedented evacuation of 370,000 residents on Friday. "No matter what the track is, no matter how much it weakens, this is a
life-threatening storm," New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Saturday. The storm slapped North Carolina overnight and into Saturday morning
with thrashing winds that knocked down trees and power lines and left
around 200,000 people in the dark, said utility Progress Energy. Storm
surges of up to 9 feet occurred in coastal areas. On Ocracoke Island, at the southern end of the Outer Banks, a couple of
hundred residents riding out the storm lost power early Saturday
morning. Their power lines are strung along poles mounted on the highest
sand dunes. "The power went off for good around 5 a.m.," said Clayton Gaskill, who
had been trying to keep the island's tiny radio station, WOVV, running
through the night. "We won't be back on the air until the storm goes by,
because there's no shelter for the portable generators," he said in a
text message to CNN. A tornado touched down in Tyrrell County around 1 a.m., said Mark Van
Sciver of the North Carolina Joint Information Center. Atlantic Beach
avoided the full brunt of the storm. Still, walls of water roared onto
land, flooding streets and parking lots. A hotel facade ripped away and part of a pier fell into the angry ocean.
Hurricanes usually weaken over land, but Irene's first U.S. target, the
slivers of North Carolina islands in the Atlantic, are marshlands
surrounded by water and Irene is expected to keep churning with
hurricane force. Seneca, the North Carolina spokesman, said authorities are concerned
about the "entire eastern half of the state." "This hurricane could potentially impact an area that includes 20
counties and 3.5 million people," he said. In New York, Bloomberg pleaded for residents once again Saturday to take
Irene seriously. He said low-lying coastal areas under serious threat included Coney
Island and Manhattan Beach in Brooklyn, Far Rockaway and Broad Channel
in Queens, South Beach, Midland Beach, and other parts of Staten Island,
Battery Park City in lower Manhattan, and sections of the Bronx. "We have never done a mandatory evacuation before, and we wouldn't be
doing this now if we didn't think the storm had the potential to be very
serious." The order meant five New York City hospitals had to evacuate patients. Rilwan Akinola, a nurse at Peninsula Hospital in Queens, worked all
night to evacuate patients to higher ground. "Some of them ask why they're being moved and there is definitely some
concern, but most of them know. They all have TVs in their rooms so they
have been following what is going on," he said. Akinola said all but a few patients were evacuated by Saturday morning.
It was a new experience for the Nigerian native. "I've never experienced a hurricane in my life, and I think people need
to know what's going on in their country. Our hospital is in a very
dangerous zone," he said. CNN's Chris Boyette, Gustavo Valdes, John Zarrella, Ivan Cabrera, Jacqui
Jeras, Kimberly Segal, Holly Yan, Sarah Hoye, Kristina Sgueglia, Rafael
Romo, Eden Pontz and Poppy Harlow contributed to this report.
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