Hurricane Irene prompts seven States to declare state of emergency!

WASHINGTON - August 25, 2011 - Illegitimate President Barack Obama has declared an emergency for North Carolina that is expected to be hit by Hurricane Irene over the weekend.

Obama on Thursday night ordered federal aid to supplement state and local responses to the storm.

The Department of Homeland Security and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) can coordinate all disaster relief efforts.

It also means the state is eligible for federal funds to help in cleanup and other needs.  Irene is tightening its aim on the Eastern Seaboard. It threatens up to 65 million people along a shore-hugging path from North Carolina to New England.

Governor Beverly Perdue's staff is taking the blame for failing to alert the North Carolina public sooner that the governor had declared a state of emergency for nearly 40 eastern counties for the approaching Hurricane Irene.

Perdue's press office announced late Thursday morning her declaration, which sets in motion mechanisms for state emergency officials to respond to the storm, activate the National Guard and lay the groundwork for Perdue to seek federal financial assistance.

But Perdue had actually signed the declaration early Wednesday evening and didn't mention it at a media briefing Thursday morning.

Perdue spokesman Mark Johnson said it was the press office's mistake that the declaration wasn't announced sooner. He said the governor didn't mention it because she believed a news release about it had already been sent.

Governor Chris Christie asked all seaside visitors to voluntarily go home by Friday as Hurricane Irene took aim at New Jersey, and the state's southernmost county, Cape May, took the more drastic step of ordering a mandatory evacuation of all tourists and residents - setting up what could be the biggest storm-related evacuation in state history.

Cape May County, in its emergency proclamation Thursday afternoon, ordered tourists on the barrier islands and any other visitors to leave by day's end. Mainland residents of the county, much of it a peninsula, were told to leave Friday morning.