Nags Head, North Carolina - The US National Weather Service says heightened waves and swells have started hitting North Carolina's coast as Hurricane Irene approaches.
Meteorologist Hal Austin says North Carolina's Outer Banks have started seeing 2- to 3-meter waves early on Friday.
For hundreds of miles, as many as 65 million people along the densely populated East Coast are warily waiting for a dangerous hurricane that has the potential to inflict billions of dollars in damages anywhere within that urban sprawl that arcs from Washington and Baltimore through Philadelphia, New York, Boston and beyond.
North Carolina is first in line along the Eastern Seaboard - home to some of the nation's most heavily populated areas and some of its priciest real estate. - Sapa-AP