East Coast on Alert for Hurricane Irene

The East Coast is a busy place these days.

Still shaken by Tuesday's earthquake, the region braced Wednesday for Hurricane Irene, which threatened to wreck the plans of weekend beachgoers and disrupt the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial dedication Sunday on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.

The powerful hurricane was expected to dump several inches of rain Saturday as it churns along the Atlantic Coast.

And although it was still hundreds of miles away, meteorologists said it could produce stormy and treacherous conditions along the beaches of North Carolina, Maryland, Delaware and New Jersey as it passes.

Forecasters said they expected the worst Saturday night, as the storm center passes off the Virginia capes. By noon Sunday, Irene is expected to be off Atlantic City, N.J., and accelerating north into cooler water.

Hurricane Irene Could be a Category 4

Hurricane Irene continues to grow in strength and ferocity in the Caribbean and is now on track to become a Category 4 hurricane, authorities said. Fueled by warm waters and nothing to slow it down, the hurricane is taking a path that will likely skirt Florida and head straight for the Carolinas, with landfall this weekend.

The storm, which is now a Category 2 hurricane, is moving at about 12 mph and is currently north of the Dominican Republic, said National Hurricane Center spokesman Dennis Feltgen in an interview with The Times. Unfortunately, that means "it's moving into an environment which is very ideal for strengthening. ... We expect it to become a Category 4 hurricane as it passes east of central Florida."

The warm ocean waters and very low wind shear are the two key factors driving the hurricane, he said. High wind shear could help disrupt the storm, scattering it.

"We expect the storm to stay off the coast of Florida, which is good news for Florida. But it's still looking like it's going to impact the Carolinas and could make landfall there as a major hurricane."