WILMINGTON, N.C. -- Hurricane Irene rumbled up the East Coast Saturday, taking aim at flood-weary North Carolina, where residents began all-too-familiar preparations for another onslaught.
Gov. Jim Hunt declared a state of emergency. Officials considered evacuations and warned that it wouldn't take much rain to push rivers in the eastern part of the state back above flood stages. Irene's 80 mph winds also could threaten camper villages populated by people left homeless by floods from Hurricane Floyd.So far, the storm has been blamed for at least seven deaths -- two in Cuba and five near Fort Lauderdale, Fla., who were electrocuted by downed power lines. After drenching Cuba's tobacco fields and collapsing buildings in Havana, Irene rolled ashore Friday afternoon 75 miles southwest of Miami and headed north through the Everglades.
At its worst, the storm knocked out power to more than 1.5 million customers, according to Florida Power & Light. Electricity was restored to about half of them by midday Saturday. As much as 18 inches of wind-driven rain caused scattered flooding over hundreds of miles, from Key West to West Palm Beach.
"I could not give you a damage assessment (of crops). I would not be surprised if it were $100 million," said Miami-Dade Mayor Alex Penelas. "It seems about every piece of farm land is literally under water."
Irene intensified slightly as it headed north. Its 80 mph sustained winds were 6 mph more than the threshold for a hurricane, and the storm was moving north at 12 mph. It was expected to make landfall near the North Carolina-South Carolina line late Sunday.
Exactly a month ago Saturday, thousands of coastal residents returned home after fleeing Hurricane Floyd, which destroyed than 6,000 buildings and damaged 9,000 others. At least 49 deaths and damage expected to exceed Hurricane Fran's record $6 billion in 1996 were blamed on that storm. Piles of soggy furniture and ruined toys and appliances still line roads throughout the region.
"There's no place for this rainfall to go, so any little bit of rain that we get from this hurricane could immediately cause flooding," said Laura Furgione, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service office in Newport on the central North Carolina coast.
A hurricane warning was in effect from Savannah, Ga., to Cape Hatteras, N.C., and a hurricane watch was posted for north of Cape Hatteras to the Virginia border.