N. Carolina braces for season’s 1st storm
Print Edition
THE first hurricane of the Atlantic season gained strength yesterday as its outer bands reached North Carolina, where thousands of vacationers scrubbed their July 4th holiday beach plans and evacuated low-lying barrier islands in the storm’s path.
Hurricane Arthur was about 175 kilometers south-southwest of Cape Fear, North Carolina, with maximum sustained winds of 150 km per hour, forecasters said.
Moving faster at 15 kph, the center of the Category 1 hurricane was expected to brush close to the North Carolina Outer Banks late yesterday and early today, according to the United States National Hurricane Center in Miami.
Tourists and residents packed ferries and crowded the only highway off Ocracoke and Hatteras islands, where voluntary and mandatory evacuations were in effect in anticipation of worsening weather conditions.
“Pre-storm jitters and preparation,” Dare County Commissioner Allen Burrus said of the mood early yesterday. “Right now it is beautiful, but it is going to deteriorate around 5 or 6 this afternoon.”
The worst of Arthur’s winds were expected to remain offshore, forecasters said. But the storm could bring gusty squalls, heavy rain, life-threatening rip currents and a storm surge of up to 1.2 meters to North Carolina’s barrier islands.
“There could be loss of electricity, there could be restaurants closing, there could be cars flooding and roads compromised,” Hyde County manager Bill Rich said.
Several towns and villages on North Carolina’s coast rescheduled Independence Day festivities and fireworks as the storm approached.
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