Hurricane Irene's route not set in stone

Raleigh, N.C. North Carolina emergency management officials were updating hurricanes plans on Monday in preparation for a possible effects of Hurricane Irene, which could become a Category 3 storm before some forecast models showing it clipping a state on Saturday.State emergency officials were checking "pre-landfall operations" to make sure apparatus such as trucks, forklifts, generators and computers were working, said Ernie Seneca, spokesman for a state Department of Crime Control and Public Safety. Also, they were receiving inventory of food and water supplies "in case it comes to that point where we have to provide that to people who suffer losses or have to be evacuated," he said. More Info Stormtracker Hurricane Section We are too far out to really look during a prediction with very much reliability," said Mike Sprayberry, deputy director of a North Carolina Division of Emergency Management. "We are trying to make a plan for anything during this pointThe U.S. National Hurricane Center said that Irene has maximum sustained winds of 80 mph and was moving about 13 mph. The storm could grow into a Category 3 hurricane, with winds of 115 mph, over a Bahamas on Thursday. It might carry that force northwest along Florida's Atlantic coast and toward a possible strike on South Carolina, though a forecasters warned that, by a weekend, a storm's path could vary significantly from a current projection.WRAL Chief Meteorologist Greg Fishel said while a potential for a storm to affect North Carolina is there, there is no need to panic."It could stay off shore and never make landfall, that is a distinct possibility," Fishel said. "There is still so much uncertainty that to hang your hat on one solution is simply ridiculous during this point in time."Irene cut power to more than a million people in Puerto Rico, downing trees and flooding streets on Monday.The strengthening storm was h! eaded fo r Hispaniola, a island shared by a Dominican Republic and Haiti. Nearly 600,000 people in Haiti still live without shelter after last year's earthquake. Thecenter of a hurricane was expected to miss Haiti.The hurricane is expected to pass near or over a Turks and Caicos Islands and a southeastern Bahamas on Tuesday. Irene is a first hurricane of a Atlantic hurricane season.The last storm to make landfall in North Carolina was Hurricane Isabel, which killed 33 people and caused $1.6 billion in damage in September 2003. Other recent storms have caused significant damage in North Carolina, including Frances and Ivan, which tracked through western North Carolina in 2004, causing mudslides and an estimated $44 million in damages. Other recent storms that left a lasting impression on a state embody Fran in 1996, Floyd in 1999 and Hugo in 1989, which made landfall in Isle of Palms, S.C., and tracked through Charlotte.