Hurricane Irene churns up East Coast; Virginia boy, 11, is killed by fallen tree

 
Several hours after Hurricane Irene made landfall in North Carolina, the howling storm churned up the East Coast on Saturday afternoon, battering buildings, knocking out power lines and toppling trees. An 11-year-old Virginia boy was killed after a tree fell on his family’s apartment.




Beginning with gusting winds and light showers, the brunt of the storm was expected to pass through the Washington area overnight and into Sunday morning. It reached land as a Category 1 hurricane, downgraded a notch from the greater force it gathered over the open Atlantic. The National Hurricane Center reported at 2 p.m. that Irene’s maximum sustained winds were 85 mph.Washington Post.