STORM

In a region unaccustomed to hurricanes, it is easy to underestimate both the need to evacuate and the difficulty of doing so. But with meteorologists warning that Irene could be a historic storm, it's time to get serious.

A hurricane has not made direct landfall in New York City in almost 100 years: Can we handle it?

Hurricane Irene's path could go three ways as it moves north toward the New York area, and none of them are good. The most likely scenario, based on current projections, is Irene making landfall on Long Island or in Connecticut and then moving north through western Massachusetts.

Irene is expected to arrive on the East Coast on Saturday.

With Hurricane Irene on path to hit the North Carolina coast, the National Hurricane Center issued hurricane watches and local officials began evacuating.

Unusually large and powerful, Hurricane Irene is moving slow but plodding on a path pushing the massive storm toward possible landfall on the North Carolina coast Saturday before assaulting the Northeast's I-95 corridor late Sunday. With hurricane force winds of at least 74 miles per hour currently extending 70 miles from its center, and tropical-storm force winds extending another 255 miles in all directions, the Category 3 storm is packing winds of 115 miles per hour and forecasters say the...

After causing widespread damage in Bahamas on Thursday, Hurricane Irene is now heading to North Carolina, New York with winds over 115 miles per hour.

his is the first major storm to seriously threaten the Bahamian archipelago in ten years.

Hurricane Irene is threatening to become one most impacting storms to ever strike the Northeast U.S., possibly striking major cities including Philadelphia, New York and Boston at hurricane strength late into the weekend. After lashing the Bahamas on Wednesday, Irene is moving up the U.S. East Coast as a major Category 3 hurricane, packing winds of 115 miles per hour. Irene is centered about 65 miles east-northeast of Nassau, Bahamas and moving northwest at 13 miles per hour.

Hurricane Irene’s path strengthened to a Category three hurricane overnight and hit the southeastern Bahamas hard on Wednesday.

Hurricane Irene is cutting its way toward a direct hit on the U.S. East Coast, threatening to wreak havoc in major cities along the highly-populated I-95 corridor late this weekend, including Philadelphia, New York, Hartford, and Boston. After lashing the Bahamas on Wednesday, pummeling small outlying Caribbean islands, the first hurricane of the 2011 Atlantic season is posing an extreme threat to the U.S. East Coast -- with potential to become historic before it sweeps away from...

Hurricane Irene continues on its path of destruction towards the U.S., setting its aim on North Carolina and the Northeast this weekend.

Hurricane Irene is strengthening, and taking aim at New York, America's largest city. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg is urging city residents to focus on potential damage Irene could cause, in a rare hurricane strength strike.

The last hurricane to pass directly over the new York, in 1821, caused tides to rise 13 feet in one hour, flooding all of Lower Manhattan up to Canal Street. According to official estimates, a storm similar to the great Long Island Express of 1938 would cause $40 billion in damage if it hit Long Island now.

Hurricane Irene is taking shape as a historic storm, strengthening and taking aim at the Northeast. Forecasters are calling Irene an extreme threat with the potential to be a serious multi-hazard threat for the major metropolitan areas of the Northeast along the I-95 corridor including New York City.

Hurricane Irene thrashed the Bahamas Wednesday, knocking down trees, tearing up roofs and posing the most severe threat to the smallest and least populated islands, and is now moving toward the North Carolina coast with sustained winds of 115 mph.

New York is getting ready for Hurricane Irene, which is thrashing the Bahamas, moving toward the North Carolina coast, and expected to strike the densely populated U.S. Northeast Saturday and Sunday.

Hurricane Irene, now lingering in the Bahamas and expected to hit the East Coast, is strengthening with time and could become a Category 4 by Thursday, say forecasters.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center has issued an advisory that Hurricane Irene could grow to Category 4 from its current Category 3 stage as it moves across the Bahamas.

In the annals of natural disasters, it doesn't get much worse than a major hurricane directly striking New York City and Long Island.

After inflicting what officials call a serious beating on the southeastern Bahamas, Hurricane Irene is now charting its path into the central parts of the islands and inching closer to the East Coast of the United States.