Crap--coming more inland.

Irene's track shifts west, state of emergency declared

RALEIGH -- The projected track for Hurricane Irene shifted more to the west Thursday as the National Hurricane Center in Miami issued the first hurricane watch for the Outer Banks and more evacuation orders were issued.

The 11 a.m. update Thursday showed the storm potentially making landfall near the Morehead City/Atlantic Beach area - meaning the Outer Banks could take a significant blow from the storm.

In a news conference Thursday morning, Governor Beverly Perdue said the new forecast is a big concern and she warned North Carolinians to take the storm seriously.

Perdue declared a state of emergency for all counties east of I-95.

"Irene is a big storm. She is packing a strong wind," she said.

North Carolina's hurricane watch extends from north of Surf City to the Virginia border. A hurricane watch means hurricane conditions are possible within 36 hours.

Early Thursday, the first hurricane of the Atlantic season had maximum sustained winds swirling at 115 mph and was moving northwest near 12 mph.

Evacuations

Governor Perdue said Thursday that she was worried by the pictures of ferries leaving Outer Banks islands.

"I was dismayed when I saw many of the ferries were empty," she said.

Perdue said tourists and residents need to get out while they can because there may not be room on ferries if people wait until the last minute.

Currituck County issued a State of Emergency effective at 11 a.m. Thursday with mandatory evacuation for tourists effective 11 a.m.

Dare County officials ordered all residents to move inland beginning at 8 a.m. Friday.

The mandatory order applies to all 35,000 of the county's year-round residents, not just those on the Outer Banks. An evacuation order took effect for as many as 150,000 tourists in Dare County on Thursday.

Tourists on Ocracoke Island, which is accessible only by boat, began evacuating early Wednesday morning.

Cape Lookout National Seashore is also evacuating all visitors from the National Seashore beginning Thursday. The seashore will be closed to all visitors and all services will be shut down until further notice.

Emergency response

Perdue reminded citizens to prepare for the impending hurricane, urging coastal residents to learn evacuation routes and have a plan for keeping families and pets safe.

Click here for more on preparing a family disaster plan

Red Cross volunteers are opening shelters for residents beginning Thursday. To find a shelter, click here.

The Governor says the state's emergency management team is the best in the nation and will be ready to respond if needed.

"We are preparing as best we can," she said.

Federal emergency officials arrived in the state Wednesday and the state's 24-hour-a-day emergency operations center is also open.

The Fayetteville Observer reported that the Pentagon has picked Fort Bragg as a staging area for disaster relief efforts.

Designating Fort Bragg as a support base allows the Federal Emergency Management Agency to put recovery supplies closer to the Outer Banks.

A Fort Bragg spokeswoman said 200 trucks will be ready to carry supplies including water, food, cots and generators.

The Salvation Army of Wake County Emergency Disaster Services team have also been placed on standby as Hurricane Irene approaches the region.

At the state level, emergency officials were checking "pre-landfall operations" to make sure equipment such as trucks, forklifts, generators and computers were working, said Ernie Seneca, spokesman for the state Department of Crime Control and Public Safety. Also, they were taking inventory of food and water supplies “in case it comes to that point where we have to provide that to people who suffer losses or have to be evacuated,â€