Hurricane Irene, a large, powerful Category 3 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane wind scale, continues to plow through the Bahamas, with the U.S. in its sights.

As you can see on our projected path map below, Hurricane Irene will be a very dangerous hurricane as it tracks towards the East Coast this weekend. Anyone in the corridor from eastern North Carolina to the Northeast U.S. should be preparing for a hurricane!

As of Thursday morning, the first tropical storm and hurricane watches have been posted for the U.S.