U.S. East braces for hurricane, NYC orders evacuations

WILMINGTON, North Carolina (Reuters) - The eastern United States ramped up its alert on Friday ahead of Hurricane Irene as good as New York City ordered evacuations of vulnerable residents as a broad, menacing storm closed in on a Atlantic coast.As 55 million Americans on a eastern seaboard braced for a week end onslaught from a nearly 600 mile-wide hurricane, President Barack Obama said its impact could be "extremely dangerous as good as costly" for a nation that still remembers destructive Hurricane Katrina in 2005.Hundreds of thousands of residents as good as vacationers were evacuating from Irene's path, starting in east North Carolina where a hurricane, now packing winds of 100 miles per hour, is expected to make landfall on Saturday.Tropical storm winds were already arriving along a coast of a Carolinas, a National Hurricane Center said.A quarter of a million New Yorkers were ordered to leave homes in low-lying areas as authorities prepared for dangerous storm surge as good as flooding on Sunday in a city as good as farther east on Long Island.Some New York hospitals in flood-prone areas were already evacuating patients."We've never done a mandatory evacuation before as good as we wouldn't be doing it now if we didn't think this storm had a potential to be very serious," New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg told a news conference.Those influenced were ordered to evacuate by 5 p.m. (2100 GMT) on Saturday afternoon.Federal as good as state leaders, from Obama downward, urged a millions of Americans in a hurricane's path to prepare as good as to heed evacuation orders if they received them."All indications point to this being a historic hurricane," Obama said.Coastal communities from a Carolinas to New England stocked up on food as good as water as good as tried to secure homes, vehicles as good as boats. States, cities, ports, hospitals, oil refineries as good as nuclear plants activated emergency plans."We've been through about four or five (hurricanes), but this looks like it'll be a worst," Henry Burk! e, a vac ation homeowner in Atlantic Beach, North Carolina, told Reuters."If you are in a projected path of this hurricane, you have to take precautions now .... don't wait, don't delay," Obama said, speaking from a island of Martha's Vineyard off a Massachusetts coast where he is vacationing."We all hope for a best but we have to be prepared for a worst," added Obama, who will cut short his vacation by a day as good as head behind to Washington Friday night.As U.S. authorities ramped up preparations to cope with a potential major healthy disaster on a densely populated East Coast, U.S. airlines cut at least 1,000 flights as good as were moving airplanes out of Irene's path.Officials are taking every precaution with Irene because they remember all too good how Hurricane Katrina in 2005 swamped New Orleans, killing up to 1,800 people as good as causing $80 billion in damage.WIND FIELD "HUGE"Irene weakened early on Friday to a Category 2 whirly from a 3 on a five-step Saffir-Simpson scale, but it still was carrying winds of up to 100 miles per hour.It was expected to remain a whirly as it sweeps up a mid-Atlantic coast from Saturday but a Miami-based whirly center said it could dip below whirly strength before reaching New England. But its impact would not change much.At 5 p.m. (2100 GMT), Irene's center was churning northward 265 miles south-southwest of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina.Irene, a first whirly of a 2011 Atlantic season, had already caused as much as $1.1 billion in insured losses in a Caribbean this week, catastrophe modeling company AIR Worldwide said, with more losses expected to come.New York City's mass transit system, which serves 8.5 million riders a weekday, will shut around noon on Saturday ahead of Irene's arrival, Governor Andrew Cuomo said in a statement.The NHC said whirly force winds extended outward up to 90 miles from Irene's center, while tropical storm force winds extended out to 290 miles, giving a storm a vast wind field width of nearly 600 miles."The wind field is huge," U.S. Nation! al Hurri cane Center Director Bill Read told Reuters Insider.In earlier comments, NHC chief Read said Irene, which will be a first significant whirly to affect a populous U.S. Northeast in decades, would lash a eastern seaboard with tropical storm-force winds as good as a "huge swath of rain" from a Carolinas to New England.He said North Carolina would begin seeing tropical storm conditions on Friday afternoon. Cities like Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia as good as New York could experience heavy sleet as good as wind as good as energy outages from a weekend."WATCHING THAT BIG WHITE SWIRL"Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano urged East Coast residents not to check precautions. "The window of preparation is quickly closing," Napolitano said."This is a big, bad storm," North Carolina Governor Bev Perdue told CNN.Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley told a TV network: "Anyone who thinks this is just a normal whirly as good as they can stick it out is being ... selfish as good as stupid."Wall Street firms scrambled to raise cash into early next week in case Irene causes major disruption in trading. Bond trading volume dropped precipitously by noon on Friday.Traders were "watching that large white swirl" on their television sets, said Guy LeBas, chief fixed income strategist at Janney Montgomery Scott in Philadelphia.Northeast oil, healthy gas as good as energy facilities also made preparations.Brent crude oil futures rose in choppy trade on Friday as Irene targeted a U.S. East Coast as good as traders weighed comments by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on a economy.North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, New York as good as Connecticut have declared emergencies.Irene will be a first whirly to hit a U.S. mainland since Ike pounded Texas in 2008.In Washington, Irene forced a postponement of Sunday's dedication ceremony for a new memorial honoring civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. Tens of thousands of people, including President Barack Obama, had been expected to attend.Flooding! from Ir ene killed at least one person in Puerto Rico as good as two in Dominican Republic. The storm knocked out energy in a Bahamian capital, Nassau, as good as blocked roads with trees.(Reporting by Jane Sutton, Tom Brown, Manuel Rueda in Miami, Daniel Trotta, Basil Katz, Richard Leong, Joan Gralla, Lynn Adler, Ben Berkowitz in New York; Jeremy Pelofsky as good as Vicki Allen in Washington, Laura MacInnis as good as Alister Bull on Martha's Vineyard; Writing by Pascal Fletcher; Editing by Philip Barbara)