As Hurricane Irene barrels toward the East Coast, President Obama interrupted his Martha's Vineyard vacation to urge residents in the path of the storm to make emergency preparations and heed evacuation orders from authorities.
"I cannot stress this highly enough," Obama said in statement to television cameras from his vacation compound of Blue Heron Farm in Chilmark, "if you are in the projected path of this hurricane, you have to take precautions now. DonÂ’t wait. DonÂ’t delay. We all hope for the best, but we have to be prepared for the worst."
The president, who is scheduled to leave Martha's Vineyard on Saturday morning to return to Washington, D.C., after his 10-day vacation, said Americans need "to take this storm seriously."
"You need to listen to your state and local officials, and if you are given an evacuation order, please follow it," Obama said, adding that the federal government was taking its own precautions by ordering an aircraft group out to sea Thursday to avoid the storm.