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Beach goers watch the tide come in as the area awaits Hurricane Earl - Source: Reuters -
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Hurricane Earl has battered North Carolina's coast with rain,
winds and waves and swirled up the US eastern seaboard toward New
England and Canada as a weakened but still dangerous storm.
The impact of the Category 2 storm appeared to be less than
originally expected as Earl churned north parallel to the US
Atlantic coast hours after it was downgraded from a Category 4
hurricane.
Surging waves pounded North Carolina's Outer Banks low-lying
barrier islands, the most exposed areas to Earl.
Local emergency officials said no casualties or major structural
damage had been reported so far. At least one coastal road was cut
by waves washing over it.
"Certainly conditions are not as severe as they could have been,"
said Sandy Sanderson, the director of emergency services in Dare
County.
At 9pm NZT, Earl was packing top sustained winds of 165 kph and its
centre was passing east of the Outer Banks islands that jut into
the Atlantic, the US.National Hurricane Centre said.
Earl's core was located about 135 km east of Cape Hatteras, and
about 750 km south southwest of Nantucket, Massachusetts.
A gradual weakening was forecast during the next 24 to 36 hours but
Earl was expected to remain a large hurricane as it turned toward
the northeast and headed for southeastern New England, which it
would approach on Friday night.
Offshore buoys at varying distances off the Outer Banks recorded
waves as high as 8 metres and even 10.7 metres.
US east coast on alert
As oil refineries, drilling platforms and nuclear power plants
along the Atlantic coast monitored Earl's path, EnCana Corp said it
suspended drilling and pulled personnel from a Nova Scotia rig in
Canada.
Exxon Mobil said it had pulled nonessential staff from its Sable
field in offshore Nova Scotia.
The US Energy Information Administration said about 1.1 million
barrels per day (bpd) of oil refining capacity lies in the likely
US affected area.
At least 100,000 people were ordered to evacuate from North
Carolina's Outer Banks islands as Earl approached the Atlantic
shore. It was one of the biggest storms to menace the state since
Hurricane Floyd killed more than 50 people in 1999.
The US Census Bureau estimated 26 million people in coastal
counties from North Carolina to Maine could feel Earl's effects in
the next two days.
While a direct US landfall was not expected, Earl is forecast to
spin northward along the coast during the Labor Day holiday weekend
marking the end of the summer vacation season.
Forecasters warned hurricane-force winds from Earl still extended
out 110 km from its centre, so it would not necessarily require a
direct landfall to inflict damage from strong wind and high
seas.
On North Carolina's Ocracoke Island, charter boat captain Ryan
O'Neal, 31, said he was staying put with his dog despite an
evacuation order. He spoke as the last ferry off the island,
accessible only by boat, left on Thursday morning.
"I've been here for every hurricane since I was born. This one may
be bad, but I'm sure we've had worse. I've got to watch out for my
house and boat," O'Neal said.
Watches and warnings were in effect along the Atlantic coast for
North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, New York,
Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Maine and parts of
Canada's Nova Scotia and New Brunswick provinces, alerting
residents that hurricane and tropical storm conditions were
possible in the next day or so.
Few vacationers were visible along Main Street in Hyannis, normally
one of the busiest towns in the Massachusetts beach community of
Cape Cod, which is expected to feel the storm tomroow NZT.
"We were tempted to leave, but I think we'll stick it out," said
John Tracy, 58, of Newport, New York, who was in town to visit his
daughter.
"Don't wait"
Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Craig Fugate
urged coastal residents to stay alert and heed evacuation
orders.
"People need to be rapidly completing their preparedness now,"
Fugate said. "Don't wait for the forecast every six hours and think
it's going to get better."
Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick declared a state of emergency,
an administrative step that speeds storm relief.
Cars lined up to get off the island resort of Nantucket off Cape
Cod and hundreds of boats were removed from its main harbor.
Smaller ferry line back-ups were seen on Martha's Vineyard, the
island that recently hosted the Obama family's summer vacation and
is home to many celebrities.
No storm has threatened such a broad swath of the US shoreline -
the densely populated coast from North Carolina to New England -
since Hurricane Bob in 1991.
Behind Earl, Tropical Storm Gaston dissipated in the central
Atlantic. There was still a chance it could regenerate as it moved
west toward the Caribbean Sea, but it was too early to tell whether
it would enter the energy-rich Gulf of Mexico.
