Tornado warnings have been issued in the New York City and southern New England regions as Hurricane Irene moves up the east coast of the United States leaving a path of debris and destruction that has claimed at least eight lives so far.
At least 3.1 million homes and businesses are without power while thousands have been evacuated from their homes and approximately 9,600 residents in New York City are currently in evacuation shelters as Irene moves north at maximum sustained winds reaching 80 miles per hour.
Over 270,000 in New York have lost power, while in New Jersey at least 460,000 statewide are without power. The National Grid is reporting that 19,000-plus homes in Rhode Island lost power while 6,000-plus homes are currently without power in Massachusetts.
In lower Manhattan at Wall Street and South Street water from New York's East River is already breaching the seawall. Work crews are swarming the area attempting to halt water from shoving down the streets, where it could affect transformers in lower Manhattan and flow into the subway system.
Irene made a landfall along the coast of New Jersey near Little Egg inlet, just north of Atlantic City, around 5:35 a.m. The estimated intensity of at landfall was 75 mph.
It is the second time Irene made landfall since slamming into North Carolina Saturday.
The hurricane is expected to move near or over the mid-Atlantic coast this morning and on to southern New England by the afternoon. Forecasts indicate Irene will weaken after landfall in New England and become a post-tropical cyclone Sunday night or early Monday.
Irene has been traveling north right on schedule. If it continues as it has, the center of the storm will be 40 miles south of New York City at 7 a.m., still over the ocean, off the coast near Asbury Park, N.J.
By 9 a.m. the center of the storm will be just south of Queens, N.Y. and between 10 and 11 a.m. the landfall is expected to be somewhere east of Manhattan on the Queens-Nassau border.
The worst of the wind and surf is expected to be between 7 a.m. and 12 p.m. throughout Long Island and parts of New York City. Tornado warning for Brooklyn, Queens and Southern Nassau County were issued overnight by the National Weather Service.
For more on how Hurricane Irene is impacting New York and the surrounding tri-state area, go to ABC News affiliate WABC-TV.
The deaths reported so far included victims of car accidents and falling tree limbs. One man suffered a heart attack as he boarded up his house in North Carolina.
Two children are among the hurricane-related deaths: an 11-year-old boy in Virginia was killed when a tree crashed through his roof, and a child in North Carolina died in a car crash resulting from out traffic lights, according to the Associated Press.
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A Maryland woman was killed when a chimney fell on her house. The unnamed woman was not killed instantly and was transported to a hospital where she was later pronounced dead, according to the Maryland Emergency Management Agency.
In Florida, a surfer and another beachgoer were killed by heavy waves, according to the Associated Press.
Tornadoes have reportedly touched down in Virginia, North Carolina, West Virginia, New Jersey, and Delaware. National Hurricane Center John Cangialosi says such tornadoes are likely to continue popping up as Irene moves north, and that conditions are especially ripe in New York City and Pennsylvania.
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