Hurricane Irene: Prepare for a Category 4 ‘major hurricane’

via Hurricane Irene: Prepare for a Category 4 ‘major hurricane’ – latimes.com.

Hurricane Irene continues to grow in strength and ferocity 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 National Hurricane Center warns that the storm remains unpredictable and is urging East Coast residents to closely track the first major hurricane of the 2011 season as it heads toward the United States so that they can be prepared for impact.

Given that all of the Southern Fried Science crew and Zelnio live on the NC coast, we will be watching this one carefully.  My house a couple of hours inland in NC appears to the serving as the evacuation spot for the ocean blogger.  The recent tweet below suggest things may get a little crazy during the obligatory hurricane party.

@DrCraigMc so if we have a mandatory evac for #Irene, can we stash the goats in your yard?

That’s how ocean bloggers roll.

UPDATE: Not hurricane related but a 5.8 5.9 earthquake occurred 1:51 pm in Virginia. I felt it in Durham, NC and the Kevin felt it out on the coast.  Reports from twitter is that it was also felt up in Boston.  Hurricanes and earthquakes?! The end times are upon us.