Governor Andrew M. Cuomo yesterday declared a state of emergency in New York in preparation for the potential impact of Hurricane Irene, which may hit New York State this coming weekend.

A state of emergency enables New York to use state resources to assist local governments more effectively and quickly, allows the state to activate the national "Emergency Management Assistance Compact" to bring in resources from out of the state, and enables New York to access key federal resources earlier in anticipation of an emergency.

The governor has ordered the state's Emergency Operations Center in Albany to operate twenty-four hours a day, and state agencies and local governments are planning cooperative response efforts.

While Irene’s predicted track is now placed further to the east than it had been earlier in the week, the state government is communicating with the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the National Weather Service to discuss the potential tracks of the storm.