Waves crash on a breakwater during the early effects of Hurricane Irene in Ocean City, Maryland
Waves crash on a breakwater during the early effects of Hurricane Irene in Ocean City, Maryland August 27, 2011. National Hurricane Center Director Bill Read said Irene, which will be the first significant hurricane to affect the populous Northeast in decades, would lash the Atlantic seaboard with tropical storm-force winds and a "huge swath of rain" from the Carolinas to New England. Reuters

President Barack Obama held a conference call on Saturday with emergency officials to discuss Hurricane Irene, which was targeting the U.S. East Coast, the White House said.

Obama was updated on the storm's intensity and anticipated track, as well as response and recovery efforts, the White House statement said. He asked to be updated as necessary throughout the day and overnight, it said.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, Craig Fugate, the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and other emergency officials were on the call, the statement said.

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