Virginia started to feel the winds and waves of Hurricane Irene Saturday morning, even though the brunt of the storm wasn’t expected to hit the state until afternoon.
Gov. Bob McDonnell announced that 65,o00 people were already without power in Virginia by around 11 a.m.
“We’re expecting those numbers to go up dramatically,” he said. “It is no time at all for people to relax.”
The massive storm was downgraded to a Category 1 hurricane overnight while it pounded North Carolina, but McDonnell said some areas of Virginia could still expect around four hours of winds over 75 miles per hour.
“It is still a very, very dangerous storm that is relatively slow-moving, that is going to dump perhaps historic amounts of rain in eastern Virginia and has potential for significant, if not extreme, damage. Residents cannot take this lightly at all,” he said in a morning press conference.
The National Weather Service issued tornado warnings for Norfolk, Virginia Beach, Chesapeake and Portsmouth this morning. Much of the East Coast is already under a tropical storm watch. Local governments in Virginia, including Arlington and Alexandria, responded by declaring states of emergency in preparation for the brutal winds and floods.
In low-lying Alexandria offiicials handed out sandbags Friday and Saturday to help keep the Potomac at bay.
