video transcript

(ROUGH CUT ONLY - NO REPORTER NARRATION) Powerful Hurricane Irene battered the Bahamas on Thursday morning on a track to the North Carolina coast that forecasters say could threaten the densely populated U.S. Northeast. The U.S. National Hurricane Center said on its website the storm was "pounding" the Northwestern Bahamian islands Thursday morning. If Irene makes a direct landfall in the continental United States, it will be the first hurricane to hit there since Ike pounded Texas in 2008.