Evacuations underway on Atlantic beaches ahead of Hurricane Earl

Sep 2, 2010, 6:47 GMT

Washington - Hurricane Earl threatened to bring a violent end to the summer high season on the US Atlantic coast as tourists evacuated beach resorts in North Carolina and storm preparations were underway along most of the Eastern seaboard.

The storm comes ahead of the three-day Labour Day weekend, a popular end-of-summer holiday when many Americans head to the beaches.

US President Barack Obama issued a disaster declaration on Wednesday for North Carolina, giving the Federal Emergency Management Agency authority to begin aiding the state's storm response effort.

Around midnight Wednesday, Earl was 840 kilometres south-south- east of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, part of the state's picturesque Outer Banks, a vulnerable chain of barrier islands.

The storm's maximum sustained winds were 220 kilometres per hour, as it moved north-north-west at a speed of 30 kilometres per hour. A turn to the north was expected later Thursday.

Current forecasts have the storm brushing the North Carolina coast but not making landfall. But the predicted track could still quickly change.

'Any delay in the turn of the hurricane would bring hurricane force or tropical storm force winds onto the Outer Banks,' National Hurricane Centre Director Bill Read said Wednesday, explaining the evacuations. 'Once you have people trapped out there there's nothing you can do about it.'

Earl had weakened from category four, the second-highest level on a five-step scale, to category three on Wednesday before regaining wind speed and again receiving the category four rating from the US National Hurricane Centre in Miami.

Hurricane or tropical storm warnings were in effect for the Atlantic Coast from North Carolina to New Jersey. Winds reaching hurricane force were expected by late Thursday on the North Carolina coast, and the Delmarva Peninsula east of Washington was expected to feel the brunt of the storm on Friday.

The National Weather Service urged people in New England and south-eastern Canada to keep track of Earl's development in the coming days.