Up to two million people have been warned to evacuate their homes on the east coast of the United States, as Hurricane Irene hit the North Carolina coast heading north Saturday, DPA reported.
Hundreds of thousands of people in North Carolina were already left without power, Govenor Beverly Perdue said, with one fatality blamed on the extreme weather also being reported.
New York City has ordered an unprecedented evacuation of 250,000 residents from low-lying areas, as the hurricane threatens rising river levels, flash floods, large waves and torrential rain as well as winds of up to 140 kph.
People in the city were reported to be stocking up on food, water and medicine supplies. Many tourists have already left New York, which is described as being eerily calm.
Many shops reported selling out of batteries, milk, water, bread and refrigerated meat.
Sandbags were being piled up to provide some form of flood defence, including around the base of Ground Zero, where the new Freedom Tower is being built. The tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks is two weeks away.
President Barack Obama, who has returned early to Washington from a family holiday in Martha's Vineyard, has ordered states of emergency for Virginia, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts, CNN reported.
Ernie Seneca, a North Carolina spokesman, told CNN authorities were concerned about the "entire eastern half of the state."
"This hurricane could potentially impact an area that includes 20 counties and 3.5 million people," he said.
The subway system in New York was closed on Saturday, whilst many flights have already been cancelled from the main airports, with all planes expected to be grounded later.
Weekend concerts and Broadway musicals in Manhattan have also been cancelled. A dedication ceremony scheduled for Sunday in Washington for a new memorial to Martin Luther King, which Obama and up to 250,000 people were due to attend, has also been postponed.
However the New York Stock Exchange was expected to open as usual on Monday.
Hurricane Irene, which has already battered the Caribbean, was downgraded again, to Category 1, on the five-level Saffir-Simpson sale by the National Hurricane Center in Miami on Saturday. However, both Obama and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg warned it had the capacity to inflict historic damage.
Five New York hospitals were evacuated late Friday.
"The low-lying coastal areas that will be endangered most by storm surge include Coney Island and Manhattan Beach in Brooklyn, Far Rockaway and Broad Channel in Queens, South Beach, Midland Beach, and other low-lying areas on Staten Island, Battery Park City in Manhattan, and some small sections of the Bronx," Bloomberg said in a statement.
"We have never done a mandatory evacuation before, and we wouldn't be doing this now if we didn't think the storm had the potential to be very serious."
Obama, speaking Friday, warned US citizens: "Don't wait, don't delay. We all hope for the best, but we have to be prepared for the worst. All of us have to take this storm seriously."
The entire storm area is, according to CNN, the size of Europe, and due to travel as far north as Boston by Sunday. "You need only look at the weather maps, and you understand how big and unique, this storm is," Bloomberg said.
However the US Open tennis tournament in New York, scheduled to start Monday, was, as yet, still going ahead as scheduled.
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