National Oceanic and Atmospheric Adminstration (NOAA) handout showing Hurricane Irene off the East Coast of United States at approximately 0745 UTC (3:45 a.m. EDT) on August 27, 2011 Photograph: Ho/Reuters
Bloomberg warns that the New York power company, Con Edison, may turn off the electricity as a precaution in Lower Manhattan if storm surges are likely. Salt water will flood the streets, he said, which causes more damage to live power lines than to those that are turned off. And he repeated his warning to those in the city's mandatory evacuation areas to leave.
It's conceivable that there'll be no electricity as well as a lot of water in the streets. Let's stop thinking this is something to play with. Staying behind is dangerous, staying behind is foolish and against the law. The time to leave is right now.
Beaches are closed for the weekend, as are all cultural institutions, he said.
The Staten Island ferry will close at 10pm. Bridges may close earlier.
He warns residents in high rises to stay away from windows above the 10th floor, where the risk of shattered glass is greater.
The mayor of New York, Michael Bloomberg, is speaking now. He says winds of between 50mph and 75 mph are expected in the city tomorrow, down from predictions of over 100mph yesterday. He insists that the risk is still high, though:
The great danger to us here is from the storm surge. There is no evidence that the forecast for that has changed.
The outer bands of Irene are now approachingWashington, DC, as shown by this radar picture from the National Weather Service in Sterling, Virginia.
Our correspondent Chris McGreal, has this update from DC, which has declared the obligatory state of emergency and has cancelled tomorrow's dedication ceremony for the new Martin Luther King memorial.
The notoriously unreliable power company in the Washington DC metro area has been calling residents with a recorded warning that there's a good chance of losing electricity because of the storm. When it goes off in this city it can last for days.I lived in Johannesburg for years which has its fair share of power cuts but they've been more frequent and lasted longer in the part of Washington I live in because of summer storms or winter snows, lasting on one occasion last year for five days.The company blames all the trees, saying they come crashing down in storms and bring the power lines down with them. Which raises an eternal question here about why they don't just bury them as in most cities. But then that would cost money.
I've been asked who named Hurricane Irene. Seasoned storm-watches will raise their grizzled eyebrows and emit a knowing sigh, but for those wondering (like me), it's the World Meteorological Organisation in Geneva. Here's the full list of projected names at the National Hurricane Center.
Time for a graph: these are wind speed readings from the National Data Buoy Center's automated station near Cape Lookout, North Carolina.
Hurricane Irene wind speed reading from the National Data Buoy Center's automated station near Cape Lookout, North Carolina Photograph: NDBC
It shows the readings rising consistently, then falling away suddenly as the eye of the storm hit.
Thanks to Jeffrey Collins on Twitter for spotting this.
The National Hurricane Service is reporting winds of 85mph in coastal North Carolina, with Irene tracking north-northeast at a sluggish 14 mph.
This just in: Brian Stelter's poncho has ripped. Thankfully, he has spares.
As I mentioned earlier, the TV networks are giving this wall-to-wall coverage. TJ Holmes on CNN is repeatedly calling it a "monster storm", and everyone is desperately trying not to mention that it has been downgraded to a category one hurricane, the weakest category in the Saffir-Simoson hurricane scale.
Keeping it real: National Hurricane Center Director Bill Read provides a live update on Hurricane Irene to New York City television viewers
The politicians are falling over themselves to be seen to be doing something. The president, Barack Obama, called it a "historic" hurricane yesterday and has returned to the White House a day early from his vacation at Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts. He is desperate to avoid the mistakes of George Bush, who was slow to act over Hurricane Katrina.
Here in New York, mayor Bloomberg was slammed over his slow response to the big snow dump last year. City Hall is at the end of my street – they've been up all night there, co-ordinating the response to this.
Hurricane Irene is political, as well as meteorological.
Hurricane Irene hits the pier at Cape Hatteras National Seashore in Rodanthe, North Carolina August 27, 2011.
Hurricane Irene is making landfall now at Cape Lookout, North Carolina. It has become the first hurricane to hit the US mainland since 2008.
The joke yesterday was that the first wall to fall victim to the hurricane was the New York Times paywall. The NYT announced that it is to drop subscription charges around its hurricane coverage as a "public service". Reaction was mixed, from those welcoming the move to others lambasting it as a missed opportunity for a media company mired in debt. (Other media companies mired in debt are available.)
I have no opinion of course, other than to say that their excellent coverage is here, and their indefatigable media (and occasional natural disaster) reporter Brian Stelter is tweeting furiously from the Comfort Inn at Nags Head on the outer banks of North Carolina.
Progress Energy has just updated its total of customers without power in the Carolinas to 160,000.
In the comments, AlexCovic mentions hysterical media coverage. It's certainly true that the TV networks especially are going nuts. You can almost here the disappointment in reporters' voices as they relay the news that Irene has been downgraded.
That's not to diminish its effects, though. I agree with one of my colleagues here who said there'll be a "big mess" in New York on Sunday and early next week. The subway system and tunnels linking Manhattan with Brooklyn and New Jersey are very vulnerable to flooding.
I'll be keeping it calm here at the Guardian, of course. Until the windows in my apartment blow in, that is. Then I'll get as hysterical as you like.
Big preparations are being made for Irene in New York. Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who faced criticism for his handling of heavy snow in the city at the end of last year, is determined not to be caught out again. The city's creaking subway system is to close, with a shutdown starting at noon. The buses and rail systems will also stop running.
New York prepeares for Irene - Sandbags on the streets of downtown Manhattan to control possible flooding. Photograph: Eduardo Munoz/Reuters
For the first time ever, parts of the city have been served with a mandatory evacuation order. This affects low-lying areas of Manhattan, including one area just three blocks from where I am – plus parts of Brooklyn and all the Rockaways (a Long Island peninsula that falls within the New York city limits).
Hospitals and senior homes in the areas are being evacuated. But this doesn't mean people are legally obliged to leave, just that at the height of the storm, rescue services won't necessarily come to help.
There have been some minor reports of damage so far. The end of the pier at Atlantic Beach pier at Atlantic Beach in North Carolina has just fallen into the sea, according to TV news crews there. Progress Energy, which supplies electricity in the Carolinas, is reporting that 120,000 people are without power, while Virginia-based Dominion power says 14,000 of its customers are affected.
Welcome to our live coverage of Hurricane Irene as it tracks up the eastern coast of the United States and heads for New York. We'll be liveblogging until the power fails, and hopefully longer. I'm Matt Wells in New York and my colleagues around the city and in Washington DC will be contributing to our coverage.
Here's a summary of where we are now:
• Hurricane Irene is about to hit North Carolina. Winds of around 90mph are already thrashing the shoreline. Irene has been downgraded to a category 1 hurricane, but there is still a significant risk of structural damage and flooding to the areas it hits. More than two million people along the east coast of the United States have been told to move inland. There are reports of structural damage in Beaufort and Tyrrell counties in North Carolina. Landfall of the first hurricane to hit the mainland since 2008 is expected in the next half-hour.
• New York is braced for the worst as Irene threatens the city with its first hurricane in decades. Mayor Michael Bloomberg has ordered the evacuation of low-lying areas and, for the first time ever, has shut the subway and bus systems from noon today. The storm is expected to make landfall on Long Island tomorrow.
• President Barack Obama has returned to the White House in Washington, cutting short his holiday in Martha's Vineyard one day early. He has urged residents in affected areas to heed evacuation notices and hurricane warnings, and has signed a state of emergency declaration for New York. "Don't wait, don't delay," he said.
• Amtrak has cancelled all train services in the northeastern corridor. More than 7,000 flights have been cancelled.
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