five miles northeast of cape lookout. it is now down to a category 1 hurricane with maximum winds of 85 miles per hour. still very significant. make no mistake, it is a very powerful storm. and it is still very dangerous. there have been two storm-related deaths in north carolina reported so far. and we re seeing a lot of fierce winds and drenching rains there. parts of the region haven t seen a storm like this in decades. we re talking about along the eastern seaboard. cnn has crews up and down the east coast. take a look right there. dotting the map along the east coast there. you ll be hearing from many of them this afternoon. right now, president barack obama is at fema headquarters in washington. that s where all the disaster and relief efforts are being coordinated. officials say they re expecting everything from flooding to power outages and possibly tornadoes along the eastern seaboard. these will not be on the ground very long. they won t be the type of tornadoes w
carolina coast. as many as 65 million people all along the eastern seaboard are going to be impacted in some way, shape or form by irene. and many people are already trying to find shelter where they can. take a look at the size of this storm. eight states from north carolina to massachusetts are under states of emergency. and right now, this first hurricane of the season that is impacting so much of the east coast is pummeling north carolina. it barreled ashore on the outer banks of north carolina just after dawn this morning, about five miles northeast of cape lookout. it is now down to a category 1 hurricane with maximum winds of 85 miles per hour. still very significant. make no mistake, it is a very powerful storm. and it is still very dangerous. there have been two storm-related deaths in north carolina reported so far. and we re seeing a lot of fierce winds and drenching rains there. parts of the region haven t seen a storm like this in decades. we re talking about alo