Hurricane Irene threatens islands, US east coast

Irene packed winds of 155 kilometers (100 miles) per hour, leading the Miami-based US National Hurricane Center to upgrade it to a category two storm, on the five-level Saffir-Simpson scale, in its 0200 GMT bulletin.

The center of Irene was located north of Haiti\'s northern coastline over the British overseas territory of Turks and Caicos, some 650 kilometers (400 miles) south-east of Nassau, the NHC said.

The storm is forecast to strike the south-eastern US coastline near the Carolinas over the weekend.

"Strengthening is forecast, and Irene could become a major hurricane within the next day or so," the NHC said.

Hurricane-force winds extend up to 65 kilometers (40 miles) from Irene\'s center, and Tropical Storm-force winds extend outward up to 335 kilometers (205 miles), the NHC said.

Irene is currently forecast to move across the southeastern and central Bahamas on Wednesday, and over the northwestern Bahamas on Thursday. Up to 10 inches (25 centimeters) of rainfall were expected in the southeastern Bahamas.

Fed by warm Atlantic waters, the intensifying storm is expected to whip up ocean storm surges as high as 13 feet (nearly four meters) by the time it reaches the central Bahamas.

Airports and businesses closed Wednesday in the Turks and Caicos, where officials said high winds felled power lines and spread debris in city streets. The State Department issued a travel warning for the islands as well as the Bahamas, urging US citizens already to seek shelter.

In the Dominican Republic, authorities said more than 11,000 people were evacuated to shelter before the storm winds brushed the island\'s north coast late Monday.

Quake-ravaged Haiti, which shares the island of Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic, was largely spared by the storm, although some mudslides were reported near the northern coast.

US emergency officials warned that the entire US eastern seaboard should be on alert. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) chief Craig Fugate urged residents to realize that it\'s "critical that you take this storm seriously."

NHC head Bill Read said a "very large" Irene would likely approach the coast of South Carolina and North Carolina early Saturday.

"But New England could also be in play for a possible impact from Irene," he warned in a media conference call.

Irene is forecast to approach the US mid-Atlantic coast at a time when it is packed with tourists for one of the final weekends of summer.

And forecasters said that by the time Irene reaches US shores, it is likely to be an even more potent storm -- perhaps as high as a category four on the five-level Saffir-Simpson scale.

"The stakes are high because it would take just a slight shift in the track to the left to make a dramatic change in the impact of the storm in a hugely populated area," said NHC spokesman Dennis Feltgen.

US forecasters said Irene could travel clear up the US Atlantic coast as far north as Delaware by early Sunday.

Irene ravaged the US territory of Puerto Rico on Monday, and one woman died there after her car was swept away by flooding as she tried to cross a bridge, authorities said.

Some 1,500 Puerto Ricans were dislocated by the storm, and nearly a million were left without electricity. Clean-up was under way after Irene downed trees and caused flooding in residential areas.

After the storm hit, US President Barack Obama issued an emergency declaration for the territory.

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