Hurricane Irene slams Puerto Rico and major storm moves toward Florida, South Carolina

Hurricane Irene pounded Puerto Rico Monday, flooding streets and knocking out power to a million people as it cut a course that may lead it to slam into the South Carolina coast.
The storm - the first hurricane of the Atlantic storm season - is growing more powerful as it moves northwest, toward the Bahamas, at 13 miles-per-hour, forecasters told The Associated Press.
Its maximum winds increased to 80 miles-per-hour as of 11 a.m. Monday, and forecasters projected it would morph into a Category 3 hurricane - with winds of 115 mph - as it nears the Central Bahamas on Thursday.
It has caused major delays and cancellations at Caribbean and U.S. airports.
Irene's path could cause it to skirt the Florida coast and make landfall in South Carolina on Saturday, according to the National Hurricane Center.
"The official forecast calls for intensification and makes Irene a Category 3 hurricane as it moves across the central Bahamas," read an analysis by the National Hurricane Center on Monday afternoon.
"Irene is becoming a large cyclone."
Irene has lashed parts of Puerto Rico with 75 mph winds and dropped as much as 10 inches rain. Gov. Luis Fortuno issued a state of emergency and urged people to remain indoors, but there were no reports of deaths.
"This isn't the time to go out to find out what happened ... This is the time stay in your homes," Fortuno warned at a news conference.
Irene is threatening the northeastern coast of the Dominican Republic, but forecasters expect it to miss neighboring Haiti to the west, which is still expected to see heavy rain and winds.
Both nations share the island of Hispaniola, where a range of mountains could alter the path of the hurricane - changing the likelihood of it hitting South Carolina.
One forecaster said that is not anticipated, however.
"We don't expect this to get ripped up over the mountains of Hispaniola," Dennis Feltgen, a spokesman for the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami, told The Associated Press. "We expect it to remain a hurricane."
Residents in Charleston, South Carolina, were warned to keep a close eye on Irene. The last hurricane to hit the area came six years ago, officials said.
If Irene were to make landfall in Florida, it could prove devastating to the state's citrus crop.