Hurricane Irene is battering New York with ferocious winds and driving rain, shutting down the United States' financial capital and most populous city.
New York City has closed its public transport system and the mayor said it was now too late for people to leave.
Some 370,000 city residents were earlier ordered to leave their homes in low-lying areas, many of them in parts of the boroughs of Brooklyn, Queens and Manhattan.
At least eight people have died as a result of the storm, which has reached North Carolina, Virginia and Florida.
The Miami-based US National Hurricane Center forecast a storm surge of up to 2.5 metres for Long Island and metropolitan New York.
The fear is that could top the flood walls protecting the south end of Manhattan if it comes at high tide.
As it moved into New York, the hurricane center said it was expected to remain a hurricane and weaken only after making landfall again in New England.
Hurricane Irene brought torrential rains and sustained winds of 185 km/h that shut down major highways and airports, and knocked down trees and power lines.
Two million homes and businesses were without power in North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland and Delaware on Saturday.
More than two million people have been ordered to evacuate from low-lying areas from North Carolina to New York.
Airlines cancelled more than 8000 flights for the weekend, rail operator Amtrak was shutting down its Northeast service on Sunday, bus travel was disrupted and major bridges in Maryland and Virginia were closed.
States of emergency have been declared in North Carolina, Maryland, Virginia, Delaware, New Jersey, New York and Connecticut.
US President Barack Obama met with emergency managers in Washington after returning early from his summer holiday in Massachusetts.
