North Carolina's Dare County ordered all visitors to leave as of 8 a.m. Thursday to get out of the way of Hurricane Irene.
Evacuation was mandatory for all nonresidents, county officials said in a statement, and residents should prepare for a monster storm. The county includes the vulnerable Outer Banks, where Irene could make landfall.
"Although the mandatory evacuation order is for all Dare County visitors, residents are advised to take proper precautions and make general storm preparations," the statement said.
Officials in Carteret County are meeting today, deciding whether to issue evacuation orders. The decisions are expected today, in order to give people in those counties enough time to evacuate before the first major effects of Hurricane Irene begin to impact Eastern Carolina. They try to give a considerable amount of time during the daylight to escape any threats of an approaching storm.
Officials say they consider the track of the storm, expected impacts, along with hurricane watches and warnings when determining whether to evacuate an area.
Mandatory evacuations have been issued for Ocracoke Island in Hyde County and Dare County.