HURRICANE

Philadelphia May Nutter said Thursday that Hurricane Irene could become the worst storm to hit the East in fifty years. Governors in North Carolina, Virginia, New Jersey, and Delaware have all declared states of emergency.

Forecasters are predicting between 5 to 10 inches of rain pounding the area over the weekend.

It has been quite a year for New York, as the city has been hit with tornadoes, a blizzard, a heat wave, an earthquake and now a hurricane.

Hurricane Irene caused havoc in the low-lying area of the Bahamas and continued its path of destruction toward the U.S. East Coast -- leading to a state of emergency in the six states along the coast.

As the hurricane warning area expands on the East Coast covering a large area from North Carolina to Boston, the National Weather Service warned Washington, D.C. area with a higher danger.

As most of the Eastern Seaboard prepares for Hurricane Irene, many travelers will be cutting trips short, returning home early or not going at all. For those who bought travel insurance, here's what you can expect to be covered.

Check back here throughout the afternoon as IBTimes' update storm map tracks Irene's path, with links to the preparations being made to counter her assault on the East Coast.

As Hurricane Irene, currently a Category 3 hurricane, lurches up the East Coast, it's important to make a make and follow a disaster preparation plan, including an evacuation strategy.

Residents are not taking any chances with the impending Category 3 weekend storm.

As Hurricane Irene tracks towards the United States, hurricane watches and warnings have been issued from North Carolina up through Massachusetts.

Hundreds of thousands residents in the outer boroughs of Bronx, Queens and Brooklyn were stuck in their homes for days because plows did not clear out snow from many secondary roads.

Hurricane Irene is jolting Long Island to prepare for the worst case scenario, urged the government of Nassau County, Long Island.

Goodnight Irene! a North Carolina resident wrote on their house, which was left boarded up, anticipating the arrival of Hurricane Irene in Nags Head, N.C., The storm's punishing weather from the Carolinas to as far north as Massachusetts threatens at least 65 million people in the storm's track.

Residents in Ocean City, Md. Were ordered to evacuate as the monster storm Hurricane Irene is expected to hit the Maryland shore Sunday.

The entire Delmarva peninsula has been warned that a storm of Irene’s power has not been experienced in the region in decades.

Hurricane Irene 2011 is preparing to make a path of destruction and havoc up the U.S. East Coast beginning late Friday in North Carolina before hitting New York and Boston and other major cities on Sunday. Coastal regions were being evacuated in Delaware Friday, and states of emergency have been declared at states all along the coast line, from North Carolina and Virginia to New York and New Jersey as the potential storm of a lifetime gets ready to make landfall or come close on the U.S.

Maryland began taking major precautions, including evacuating Ocean City, ahead of the Hurricane Irene storm that began to hit North Carolina on Friday.

Hurricane Irene claimed its first American casualties Thursday when eight people were injured in South Florida, and as the hurricane continues its path of the East Coast.

Waves of up to 8 feet have been seen on Friday morning from Myrtle Beach, S.C. up to the Outer Banks.

Irene would truly have to be a catastrophic event to fall into the following list of the costliest natural disasters in recorded history.

Ready or not residents of the Northeast, including Boston, New York, and Philadelphia, powerful Hurricane Irene is on a path your way, with extraordinary risk threat and potential of flooding rain, high winds, downed power lines and power outages. Irene is expected to reach the northeast by this weekend. Updated forecast models on Friday show that poses an extraordinary threat and is one that no one has yet experienced from North Carolina to the mid-Atlantic to the Northeast to New England...