(Mark Your Calendars: RealShare New Jersey 2011, September 13 in New Brunswick. RealShare New York takes place Oct. 12 at the Marriott Marquis.)

NEW YORK CITY-Standing outside St. Luke’s Baptist Church in Laurelton, Queens on Thursday morning, Mayor Michael Bloomberg warned New Yorkers to “prepare for the worst” as Hurricane Irene moves up the Northeast coastline. “The city has already seen the power of Mother Nature once this week, and Mother Nature may not be done yet,” Bloomberg said at a press conference, just three days after New Yorkers were rattled by the aftershocks from a 5.9-magnitude earthquake in Virginia. A State of Emergency for New York and New Jersey has been declared.

The National Weather Service is predicting the Category 3 hurricane will hit coastal North Carolina on Saturday, which can cause high winds, heavy rain, power outages and urban flooding in the New York-metropolitan area as early as Saturday evening. “By the time Irene gets to us, it certainly will still be a powerful storm,” Bloomberg said. Forecasters are predicting a Category 2 storm for Eastern Long Island, but the fate of the five boroughs is uncertain. “At this point, the forecast does not indicate that the storm would hit New York City with that strength, but we certainly will still see its effects here,” he added.