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As Hurricane Irene continued its march toward the East Coast, Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Friday issued a mandatory evacuation of the city's low-lying areas and the announced a system-wide mass transit shut down beginning at noon on Saturday.

The low-lying areas are scattered across the city and are home to about 270,000 residents. They include parts of Battery Park City, Coney Island and the Rockaways. Bloomberg called the mandatory evacuations a first and residents were told to be out by Saturday evening.

"Waiting until the last minute is not a smart thing to do," Bloomberg said. "This is life-threatening." Bloomberg added that despite Friday's "beautiful sunset" and "great weather," the city is facing a "dangerous storm."

Here are the latest developments:

• President Barack Obama declared an emergency for New York.

• A hurricane warning was issued for New York City, coastal Connecticut and Martha's Vineyard.

• Bloomberg ordered mandatory evacuations for residents in low-lying areas of the city.

• Emergency shelters will be opened at 4 p.m. Friday

• Mass transit will shut down beginning noon Saturday. Long Island Rail Road, Metro-North Railroad and Access-A-Ride along with buses and subways will be affected. 

• Major bridges in the city and Lower Hudson Valley and the state Thruway will close if sustained winds top 60 mph, the governor said Friday.

• More than 900 National Guard soldiers and more than 100 vehicles will head to the Hudson Valley, New York City and Long Island Saturday in response to Hurricane Irene.

• Taxis, livery vehicles, commuter vans and other for-hire vehicles have been instructed to help evacuate residents from low-laying areas of the city.

• The MTA is waiving fares on buses and subways in evacuation zones to faciliate the exodus starting at 8 p.m. Friday.

Speaking from Martha's Vineyard on Friday, President Barack Obama said Irene would be "a historic hurricane" and urged residents in the path of the storm to evacuate if asked to do so.

"I cannot stress this highly enough: If you are in the projected path of this hurricane, you have to take precautions now. Don’t wait. Don't delay," Obama said. "We all hope for the best, but we have to be prepared for the worst. All of us have to take this storm seriously."

He declared an emergency for New York state which means that FEMA and the Homeland Security Department can coordinate disaster relief efforts, and that the state can receive federal aid to supplement state and local emergency and clean-up assistance.

Evacuations

New York City residents in low-lying areas known as Zone A are supposed to evacuate by 5 p.m. Saturday.

The city has set up a total of 71 shelters for people in Zone A and all of the Rockaway Peninsula. Shelters are deliberately not being publicized on the city's website to avoid an onslaught of arrivals, officials said.

Instead, residents in the mandatory evacuation zone should either call 311 or go to nyc.gov, and give their address. WNYC also has a map of emergency centers. Once they go to an emergency center, they will give their address and then learn where they should seek shelter. It might be the same place as the center or it could be another location.

Virginia Hooper from Kip's Bay, turned up at a center at Baruch College on Friday afternoon. "With the shut down of the MTA system, I know that New York City gets really crazy, and I just wanted to make sure that I got into a center that was near me and accessible," she said.

OEM said the two-step process is necessary to ensure that residents are sent to a shelter that has the space and facilities to meet their individual needs. Transportation will be provided. In some cases the centers are also shelters.

Governor Andrew Cuomo ordered some toll and fare suspensions to help facilitate the evacuation. Tolls were suspended on the Cross Bay Veterans Memorial Bridge and the Marine Parkway-Gil Hodges Memorial Bridge. Starting at 8 p.m. Friday tolls would be suspended on the Verrazano Bridge and fares would be suspended on all buses throughout the city and for subway and rail passengers at stations in the mandatory evacuation area.

To assist in evacuations from the New Jersey shore, Governor Chris Christie suspended tolls on the Garden State Parkway south of the Raritan River and the Atlantic City Expressway.

Preparations

Residents in Southeast Queens and in Long Island were girding for strong winds and rain as the National Weather service predicted the storm’s eye will pass over central Long Island – in Suffolk County.

In Long Beach, Long Island, residents were duct-taping their windows and carrying canned goods along the boardwalk.

Residents in the Rockaways in Queens were scrambling to find batteries, flashlights and other emergency supplies.

Construction

The buildings commissioner has ordered all work at construction sites in the city suspended from 2 p.m. Saturday until 7 a.m. Monday.

Meanwhile, inspectors are checking construction sties throughout the city to make sure equipment is secured and materials tied down.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is securing all cranes and equipment at the World Trade Center. Sandbags are being installed in areas that could be prone to flooding.  

Hospitals

Ambulances are coming and going from Coney Island Hospital, shuttling more than 200 patients to other public hospitals around the city – and away from possible danger from Hurricane Irene.

The Brooklyn hospital is one of five in what the city designated Zone A -- low-lying waterfront areas that could sustain the brunt of extreme weather.

Two others are in Manhattan -- the NYU and V.A. medical centers, in Kips Bay. And the remaining two are Staten Island University Hospital North and Staten Island University Hospital South.

Additionally, five nursing homes in Brooklyn and three in Queens are slated for possible evacuation. Some of their names tell why: Sea-Crest, Oceanview, Shoreview and Shorefront.

Con Edison said that extensive outages were possible if strong winds toppled trees and power lines. The utility recommended residents avoid any downed lines and to turn off lights and appliances if power was lost to prevent an overload once it becomes restored.

The Long Island Power Authority said it had hired 900 extra workers to deal with the storm.

It's been seven years since a major storm — Hurricane Jeanne, a Category 3  — slammed into the East Coast. The last hurricane to hit the U.S. was Ike in 2008.

Governor Andrew Cuomo said he had requested the state's emergency response team to begin preparing for Irene to impact the state on Sunday. He also urged New Yorkers to take stock of their emergency supplies and check in with neighbors, the elderly and the disabled who might need assistance.

With reporting from Fred Mogul, Beth Fertig and the Associated Press