Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina (CNN) — Somewhat weakened but still ferocious, Hurricane Irene slammed into the North Carolina coast this morning, drenching the coastline and starting an ominous northward march up the Atlantic Seaboard.
The massive Category 1 hurricane made landfall near Cape Lookout around 7:30 a.m. with top sustained winds of 85 miles per hour thrashing sand and water in every direction.
Kitty Hawk braced next for a nasty right hook from Irene.
Ten of thousands of people in North Carolina were without power as reports of damage started filtering in.
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About 190,000 customers of Progress Energy lost power, said company spokeswoman Lauren Bradford. Gusty winds will affect restoration efforts even with tripled crews, she said.
In nearby Ocracoke, at the southern end of the Outer Banks, a couple of hundred residents riding out the storm lost power early this morning. Their power lines are strung along poles mounted on the highest sand dunes.
The National Hurricane Center said extremely a dangerous storm tide could raise water levels by as much as nine feet in some parts of North Carolina. It also warned of the possibility of tornadoes touching down.
In its northward run, Irene is expected to cause trouble all the way up to Boston this weekend. Parts of New York City, including sea-level lower Manhattan, braced for major flooding.
New York has ordered mandatory evacuation for 370,000 of its residents.
Irene prompted the cancellation of hundreds of airline flights, the imminent shutdown of the New York subway system and an unprecedented mandatory evacuation in parts of “the city that never sleeps.”
Forecasters expect Irene to bring deadly storm surge, heavy rainfall and misery to millions.
As of 8 a.m. today, Hurricane Irene was centered about 5 miles north of Cape Lookout. It was moving north-northeast at 14 miles per hour, the hurricane center said.
