East Braces for a Walloping

By MIKE ESTERL in Morehead City, N.C., MICHAEL HOWARD SAUL in New York and ARIAN CAMPO-FLORES in MiamiResidents and businesses up and down the East Coast braced Friday for Hurricane Irene, which barreled toward the Outer Banks of North Carolina and threatened to wreak havoc along a densely populated corridor stretching from the Mid-Atlantic through New England. The Category 2 storm weakened Friday, with winds decreasing to 100 miles per hour from 115 mph Thursday. But forecasters said Irene remained a menacing hurricane that could topple trees and power lines, trigger heavy floods and set off storm surges as high as 11 feet. New York City Mayor <a href="http://www.theapparelend.com/men-shoes-prada-c-1017_1094.html"><strong>Prada men fashion shoes onsale</strong></a> Michael Bloomberg ordered a mandatory evacuation of certain low-lying areas in New York City by 5 p.m. Saturday, an unprecedented move that sent 250,000 people in search of higher ground. "We've never done a mandatory evacuation before," he said. "And we wouldn't be doing it now if we didn't think this storm had the potential to be very serious." Residents far inland are likely to experience the storm's wrath, said Bill Read, director of the National Hurricane Center. With Irene approaching, President Barack Obama planned to return to Washington from vacation on Friday night rather than Saturday morning, to deal with the hurricane. "All indications point to this being a historic hurricane," Mr. Obama said in a statement Friday from the Martha's Vineyard estate where he had been staying this week. "I cannot stress this highly enough: If you are in the projected path of this hurricane, you have to take precautions now." As the storm moved northward, local officials from North Carolina to New York issued mandatory evacuation orders, fearing intense flooding from the massive, slow-moving hurricane. Mr. Bloomberg urged New Yorkers to act immediately, and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority said it would shut down trains, subways and buses at noon Saturday. He advised people to stay indoors from 9 p.m. Saturday to 9 p.m. Sunday. The city has shelter for up to 70,000 people, so officials urged many of those evacuating to find lodging with friends and family. At a news briefing on Friday, federal officials urged those in potentially affected areas to pay close attention to local officials' instructions, especially evacuation orders. "All planning and preparation will be in vain if people don't heed evacuation orders," said Craig Fugate, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Transportation services were slowly grinding to a halt, as airlines cancelled flights and Amtrak halted train service. In preparation for Irene's arrival, FEMA deployed teams throughout the potentially affected region to coordinate response and recovery efforts with state and local officials. The agency also trucked supplies like generators and cots to staging bases in North Carolina, New Jersey and Massachusetts. The American Red Cross mobilized resources as well, including 200 emergency-response vehicles, 120,000 ready-to-eat meals and 1,000 volunteers, said <a href="http://www.theapparelend.com/men-pants-gucci-c-1003_1175.html"><strong>Gucci men popular jeans onsale</strong></a> Chief Executive Gail McGovern. In New Jersey, Gov. Chris Christie issued a stark warning Friday to people on the state's barrier islands. "You stay there at the risk of your life," he said, calling those who wanted to ride out the storm "dopes." In Atlantic City, all ############s were expected to close by Saturday afternoon, Atlantic County officials said. In North Carolina, evacuation orders emptied the Outer Banks and other coastal areas of many residents and tourists. Yet some locals, like Michael Roberts, were staying put. On Friday, he was sawing plywood to storm-proof the windows of his home in Hertford, about 10 miles north of Albemarle Sound in the northeastern corner of the state, which could be hit hard. "Hopefully, the roof doesn't come off," said Mr. Roberts, who works in construction. At the Wal-Mart in the coastal town of Morehead City, N.C., residents were racing to make last-minute purchases on Friday afternoon, as heavy rain began to blanket the area. Krishna Rajeev, a 26-year-old business-management graduate, bought two water jugs and some bread and cookies that he planned to share with Zeus, his 3-year-old Husky dog. Mr. Rajeev said he moved from Iowa three weeks ago and would ride out the storm. "I'm putting my furniture on cinderblocks, just in case." who lives in a ground-floor condominium about two miles from the ocean.The fishing village of Wanchese, near the Outer Banks, was bustling Friday as commercial fishermen secured their boats against the likely storm surge. As Bill Brown and his crew tied down his 50-foot boat, the Jamie B, he said his biggest concern was losing work days to fish tuna. "That's a paycheck," he said. "You got to keep rolling to keep something coming in." In Maryland, officials <a href="http://www.theapparelend.com/index.php"><strong>discount Chanel handbags onsale</strong></a> evacuated the resort town of Ocean City for the first time since Hurricane Gloria hit in 1985. They expected as many as 150,000 people, mostly tourists, to leave the area by the weekend. Brent Ashley, a councilman staying in the city as part of the emergency team, was watching police go door-to-door from his home. If people chose not to leave, he said, they were required to sign a form providing next-of-kin information and acknowledging that emergency crews wouldn't rescue them. But most people were heeding the order, he said.Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md., a testing center for some of the military's most high-end military aircraft like the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, was hurrying Friday to "clear ramps," parking as many aircraft as possible inside hangars, and flying others to evacuation sites, said Navy spokesman Doug Abbotts. The F-35s, he added, were "all buttoned up in the hangar." Elsewhere along Maryland's waterfront, officials of Wicomico County, on the Eastern Shore, declared an emergency and ordered the evacuation of areas near the Nanticoke and Wicomico Rivers. Flooding of up to five feet in some areas, along with high winds and storms, could make emergency evacuation dangerous, said County Executive Richard Pollitt, Jr. &mdash;Valerie Bauerlein, Carol E. Lee, Cameron McWhirter, Andrew Grossmann and Nathan Hodge contributed to this article. Write to Mike Esterl at mike.esterl@wsj.com and Michael Howard Saul at michael.saul@wsj.com