Hurricane Irene pounded the Bahamas Thursday en route toward the populous US east coast, punishing the nation of small islands with heavy rain and powerful winds.

The storm caused widespread destruction on the remote Bahaman island of Acklins, local reports said, but there was no immediate official comment.

On Grand Bahama Island, officials said water and electricity would be cut off, and most tourists left the popular resort area. Officials said that on Friday no one would be allowed on the streets except for emergencies.

At 0900 GMT the US National Hurricane Center in Miami said the center of Irene was located about 80 miles (130 kilometers) east-southeast of Nassau, and some 735 miles (1,180 kilometers) south of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina.

The storm was packing winds of 115 miles (85 kilometers) per hour, and was moving northwest at 12 miles (19 kilometers) per hour.

Irene is a category three hurricane on the five-level Saffir-Simpson scale, and is forecast to strengthen to a category four storm with winds of 135 miles (217 kilometers) per hour by the time it reaches the US coast over the weekend.

The US Navy ordered all its ships in the huge port of Hampton Roads, Virginia, out to sea to weather the approaching hurricane.

"Our ships can better weather storms of this magnitude when they are underway," said Vice Admiral Daniel Holloway, commander of the US 2nd Fleet.

In the latest forecast, meteorologists believe that Irene will creep up the south-eastern US coastline and graze land overnight Saturday to Sunday around Cape Hatteras, North Carolina.

The hurricane, the first of the Atlantic storm season, is then expected to continue its march just off the US coast and crash onto land east of New York City on Sunday.

Weather authorities have issued a hurricane watch for the much of the North Carolina coast -- meaning that hurricane conditions can be expected in 48 hours -- and a tropical storm watch for most of the South Carolina coast.

In the Bahamas, a nation of 29 islands and hundreds of cays in the Atlantic ocean just north of the Caribbean, residents were preparing for the worst.

Deborah Rolle rushed to load groceries in the back of her car in Freeport after making last-minute purchases.

"I'm trying to get a jump-start on things, getting everything prepared," she said.

Up to 12 inches (30 centimeters) of rainfall were expected over the Bahamas, with an "extremely dangerous" storm surge up to 11 feet (3.3 meters) above normal tide levels, the NHC said.

Craig Fugate, the head of the US Federal Emergency Management Agency, urged residents all along the eastern US seaboard to get ready.

"This is going to be a big storm. Just because it hits one area doesn't mean its not going to cause damage further up the coast," he said.

Meteorologists said its tropical force winds extended out some 255 miles (410 kilometers).

US authorities began evacuating tourists from North Carolina's popular Outer Banks beach resort early Wednesday and ordered a mandatory evacuation of the Ocracoke and Hatteras barrier islands.

"This could be a very large storm storm, so we are taking it very seriously," said Governor Bev Perdue.

Bill Read, director of NHC, said the track remains uncertain but that "the exact center of the storm may stay close to the coast on Saturday and perhaps become a big threat to New England and Long Island."

Read said that the ocean's warm water was favorable for Irene to continue strengthening and growing over the next days.

"It's going to have a very large circulation as it moves north of the Carolinas," he said in a Wednesday press conference.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest said that President Barack Obama was briefed Wednesday on the hurricane during his vacation in Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts.

burs-ch/rl

Tweet

Related Links Bringing Order To A World Of Disasters When the Earth Quakes A world of storm and tempest