The eye of Hurricane Irene is located just to the east of the southern Delaware coast, and is moving north-northeastward. Wind gusts to hurricane force (74 mph or greater) will continue to be experienced from the center north and northeastward, along with a damaging storm surge. Doppler radar estimates over 19 inches of rain has fallen in parts of North Carolina and extreme southeastern Virginia with confirmed reports as high as 15 inches.

Several inches of rain has caused severe flooding across much of the Mid-Atlantic and heavy rain will move north into New England throughout the day today.

Power outages have had an impact on data collection across the mid-Atlantic. Over 3/4 of the Dominion Power customers in the Richmond Metro area are without power at the present time with about 2 million people total in the mid-Atlantic in the dark.

Earlier in the evening, a few of the stronger rain bands produced tornadoes. At least 15 homes were damaged from a twister in a subdivision near Lewes, Del.
Tropical storm-force winds continue to move north, and now extend from southeastern Virginia north to southern Connecticut. At the coast, water rises of 2 to 4 feet and locally as high as 6 feet will be possible as Irene draws north.

(Source: AccuWeather.com)