MIAMI (BNO NEWS) -- The center of Hurricane Irene made landfall near Morehead City in North Carolina on early Saturday morning, forecasters said.
"Irene is now coming ashore in the south coast of North Carolina in the vicinity of Morehead City [and] Cape Lookout area," said Bill Read, the Director of the National Hurricane Center (NHC). "It's a large circulation, almost 50 miles (80 kilometers) in diameter so the exact point where the center is not relevant for the problems this morning."
Irene's maximum sustained winds are near 85 miles (140 kilometers) per hour, with higher gusts, making it a category one hurricane on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale of intensity.