heading back to washington, d.c. a day ahead of schedule. earlier he called irene a historic storm. i cannot stress this highly enough. if you are in the projected path of the hurricane, you have to take precautions now. don t wait. don t delay. we all hope for the best but have to be prepared for the worst. irene is on track to follow the northeast corridor right up to new england and beyond. cnn is there. reynold wolf is in new jersey, and athena jones is in annapolis, maryland. we will start here in the weather center with cnn meteorologist, chad meyers. chad, give us an idea of where irene is now. not too much changed overnight. the storm did get a little stronger, and as it got stronger, you could see the eye. at 2:00 in the morning, you could truly see the eye. now we don t see it anymore. that tells me the storm is being torn up by a little bit of sheer. it s still a 105-mile-per-hour storm. it will not say category 3 or 4 anymore, but don t let your guard down.
state officials are urging tours to come back after the storm passes. and that s not the only concern. shipping interests, commercial boating, the coast guard has shut down commercial ports in moorehead city and also in wilmington. so that s also a big economic concern. closing them down, of course, until the hurricane passes north carolina waters, shep. shepard: jonathan serrie on shaky cam live from kill delve hills in north carolina. just a little bit north of there, officials say they are worried about the rip current along the coast. they say of the threat of swimmers being pulled out to sea is growing by the hour. beaches were opened this morning. they are now off limits. in virginia officials have activated 200 national guard members for possible operations. and a navy spokesman says crews are on stand by in case they have to move the giant warships that are locked at the norfolk naval station, though that probably won t happen. one of the spots that could get some of the wors
weekend. this is a live picture from kill delve hills, become become. you can see the waves are fine. there are surfers in the water, something i would not recommend, t.j. holmes. when people say the closest it may get, and people hear that, and they may hear it s not going to make landfall but it s close enough that you are going to get hit with rain and wind that is still dangerous? absolutely. this is a big storm. don t focus on the skinny part of the line because that s the best estimate. when a storm is 200 miles out from the center, 500 miles potentially. you will see the big waves here. either way you slice it, this will be an impact storm on the u.s. coastline the next couple of days. great point to emphasize. we appreciate you so much. we turn your attention to what we have been watching in iraq. today the u.s. marking a change