Irene slams N.C. coast ; N.J braces for flooding from Cat 1 storm

Hurricane Irene slammed into North Carolina Saturday morning near Cape Lookout with winds clocking 90 mph after battering the Carolina coast.

The storm blew a large tree limb onto a Nashville, N.C., man, killing him, officials said. Nashville is 150 miles inland from Nags Head, N.C., on the coastal Outer Banks.

Meanwhile, thousands of people have lost power as the storm heads up the East Coast. Shortly after Irene made landfall near Cape Lookout, N.C., forecasters said Irene’s winds had dropped to 85 mph.

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Bearing down on New Jersey
Hurricane Irene, now a Category 1 storm, is expected to pass very close to the New Jersey coast late tonight into Sunday morning, with gusts to 80 mph, dangerous flooding and severe beach erosion expected, according to the National Weather Service.

“I think there’s still a formidable coastal threat,” said David A. Robinson, the New Jersey state climatologist at Rutgers University. “There’s certainly (a) formidable wind threat, and I’m absolutely concerned about inland flooding.”

The storm is expected to be almost at Sandy Hook by 8 a.m. Sunday, meaning it will be moving faster than forecast Friday, he said.

That means the tide will be rising as the hurricane is coming up the coast, with winds shifting to the northwest in South Jersey by high tide, he said.

“So it’s probably better news for South Jersey than North Jersey,” he said. The timing now is “certainly not favoring the north Jersey coast,” he said.

Meanwhile, a tornado watch is in effect until 8 p.m. today in Atlantic, Cape May, Cumberland and Salem counties, according to the weather service.

Isolated tornadoes are possible near the coast and on the Delmarva Peninsula through this evening, according to the weather service.

Residents are being told to get out of low-lying bayside neighborhoods in the southernmost Ocean County towns of Eagelswood, Tuckerton and Little Egg Harbor, along with neighboring Bass River.