BUXTON, N.C. — The last ferry left for the mainland and coastal residents hunkered down at home as Hurricane Earl closed in with 105-mph winds early today on North Carolina’s dangerously exposed Outer Banks, the first and perhaps most destructive stop on the storm’s projected journey up the Eastern Seaboard.
The hurricane’s squalls began to lash the long ribbon of barrier islands. Gusts above 40 mph made signs shake and the heavy rain fall sideways in Buxton, the southeasternmost tip of the Outer Banks.
Hurricane Earl’s winds were slowing, from 140 mph early Thursday to 105 mph, Category 2 strength, later. But forecasters warned that it remained powerful, with hurricane-force winds of 74 mph or more extending 70 miles from its center and tropical-storm-force winds of at least 35 mph reaching more than 200 miles out.
But National Weather Service meteorologist Chris Collins said early today that Earl had produced little storm surge and only minor flooding in some coastal counties. Predictions of storm surges between 2 and 4 feet may be generous, he said.
Collins said the eye of the hurricane was expected to get about 100 miles east of the Outer Banks about 2 a.m. today.
Earlier, forecasters said it would get as close as 55 miles and predicted the coast would be lashed by hurricane-force winds with a storm surge of up to 5 feet and waves 18 feet high.
Earl’s arrival could mark the start of at least 24 hours of stormy, windy weather along the East Coast. During its march up the Atlantic, it could snarl travelers’ Labor Day weekend plans and strike a second forceful blow to the vacation homes and cottages on Long Island, Nantucket Island and Cape Cod. Forecast models showed the most likely place Earl will make landfall is on Saturday in western Nova Scotia, Canada, where it could still be a hurricane, said hurricane-center deputy director Ed Rappaport.
Shelters were open in inland North Carolina, and officials on Nantucket Island, Mass., planned to set up a shelter at a high school today.
Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick and Rhode Island Gov. Donald Carcieri declared a state of emergency. Similar declarations also have been made in North Carolina, Virginia and Maryland.
