Hurricane Irene Path: Evacuations Begin in NC, As East Coast Residents Brace for Cat. 3 Storm

The Hurricane Irene path was a Category 2 hurricane Tuesday morning with about 100 mph winds, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami.

The center expected Irene to reach Category 3 strength Tuesday night, said spokesman Dennis Feltgen.

An image released by the NOAA made from the GEOS East satellite shows Hurricane Irene, Aug. 24, 2011 as it creeps up the East Coast with its harsh winds and disastrous nature.

For residents in states that may be affected later this week, it's critical that you take this storm seriously, said Craig Fugate, administrator at the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Emergency officials in North Carolina were checking pre-landfall operations to make sure equipment such as trucks, forklifts, generators and computers were working, said Ernie Seneca, spokesman for the state Department of Crime Control and Public Safety.

The Associated Press reports, evacuations have begun on a tiny barrier island off North Carolina early Wednesday in a test of whether people in the cross-hairs of the first serious hurricane along the East Coast in years will heed orders to get out of the way.

The last hurricane to make landfall in the U.S. was Ike, which pounded Texas in 2008, experts say.

Although, this storm is reportedly moving to the west-northwest near 10 mph, with an expected turn toward the northwest on Wednesday.

East Coast residents are stocking up on bottled water and plywood, and this week Hurricane Irene began trending on Twitter, with many users sharing updates on the storm's progress while others hoped it wouldn't come their way.

After several extremely active years, Florida has not been struck by a hurricane since Wilma raked across the state's south in October 2005, which was responsible for at least five deaths in the state and came two months after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans' parishes.

The core of Irene will pass to the north of the Dominican Republic and Haiti Tuesday morning.