Brake Down on South Carolina Coast By Earl

Dare and Hyde Counties in North Carolina said their schools will close today and tomorrow. Evacuations were ordered for Hatteras and Ocracoke Islands in the Outer Banks yesterday. North Carolina Governor Bev Perdue and Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell have both declared a state of emergency.

Earl was 410 miles south of Cape Hatteras moving north- northwest at 18 mph, the National Hurricane Center said in an advisory at 5 a.m. Miami time. The storm’s winds, already the strongest of the Atlantic season, accelerated from 140 mph three hours earlier. Hurricane-force winds are forecast to hit North Carolina tonight as Earl passes near the Outer Banks before scraping Cape Cod and hitting Nova Scotia at the weekend.

“On the track that we’re forecasting, there will be a significant impact to the Outer Banks,” Todd Kimberlain, a hurricane specialist at the center, said today in a telephone interview. “They have less than 24 hours before the arrival of hurricane conditions. There isn’t a whole lot more time, and conditions are going to deteriorate throughout the day.”

Hurricane and tropical storm watches and warnings now stretch from North Carolina to Maine in the U.S. and Nova Scotia in Canada. Hurricane watches were issued today in Massachusetts for north of Sagamore Beach to Plymouth and west of Woods Hole to Westport. A tropical storm warning was issued for a portion of New York’s Long Island.

Nantucket Threatened

A hurricane warning, meaning winds of at least 74 mph are expected, is in effect from Bogue Inlet, North Carolina, to the Virginia state line, according to the center. The center’s forecast map shows Earl tracking northeast after brushing North Carolina, coming close to New England late tomorrow.

“It wouldn’t take much of a deviation for the core of the hurricane to be very close to Martha’s Vineyard, Nantucket and maybe even Cape Cod,” Kimberlain said.

The hurricane is expected to pass about 50 miles from Nantucket, according to the National Weather Service website.

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