Hurricane Earl brings warnings up coast to New England

Winds of 40 mph or stronger could start raking eastern North Carolina by this afternoon, and hurricane-force winds could hit by tonight as Hurricane Earl surges up the East Coast as a Category 4 dreadnaught.

The storm's reach could extend as far as New Jersey by tonight or early Friday with winds of 40 mph or stronger blowing from Virginia north.

From there, the storm is forecast to come close to Nantucket, Mass.

Warnings and watches cover the Atlantic coast from North Carolina to Canada, including hurricane warnings for nearly all of North Carolina and southern Massachusetts, including Cape Cod.

Tropical storm warnings were issued for the Long Island, Connecticut and Rhode Island coasts into Massachusetts.

This morning, Earl had winds of 140 mph as it headed north-northwest at 18 mph about 760 miles south-southwest of Nantucket. Forecasters at the National Hurricane Center expected the storm to maintain that strength until this afternoon.

Forecasts called for Earl's winds to weaken to 115 mph by the time it's expected to pass east of the nose of North Carolina jutting into the Atlantic Ocean.

By late Friday night or Saturday morning, when the storm is forecasted to approach Cape Cod, Earl should still be a hurricane with winds near 100 mph.

The center won't have to cross the coastline for hurricane-force winds to reach land. Hurricane-force winds reach 45 to 55 miles west of the eye.

After passing North Carolina, the storm could stay over water as it heads toward the New York City area and New England, or it could stray over land and bring its strongest winds to shore.

Earl could still be a hurricane or close to it by the time it approaches Nova Scotia on Saturday, forecasters said.

What had been Tropical Storm Gaston that formed Wednesday weakened this morning to a tropical depression, though forecasts still called for it to regain tropical storm strength Friday and become a hurricane by Monday.

Forecasters were also watching Tropical Storm Fiona, which was expected to head into the north Atlantic, although it could hit or pass close to Bermuda under a tropical storm warning.

Gaston is stuck in weak steering currents that will keep it moving slowly to the west into early next week when it will still be well east of the Caribbean Sea.

Most computer tracking models kept the storm farther south than the paths of the previous three storms - Earl, Fiona and Danielle - which curved north of the Caribbean.

The hurricane center was also watching a tropical wave off the coast of Africa that forecasters said has a 10 percent chance of developing into a depression or storm by Saturday.

That's the same probability forecasters gave Gaston when it first emerged into the Atlantic on Tuesday.

Earl's first encounter with the U.S. mainland should come about midnight as the storm was forecast to be just off Cape Hatteras, bringing wind gusts of up to 100 mph and several feet of storm surge from the Atlantic and the sounds to the west of the barrier islands.

Early today, the Outer Banks had only light winds and high clouds as Earl was hundreds of miles south of Cape Hatteras. Those conditions were expected to deteriorate throughout the day, hurricane center forecaster Todd Kimberline said.

While thousands of tourists heeded calls to evacuate Hatteras Island, locals familiar with hurricanes vowed to ride out Earl, preparing to spend days stranded from the mainland. Officials said those remaining should be ready to fend for themselves up to three days.

Residents such as Nancy Scarborough, who manages the Hatteras Cabanas, said Outer Banks residents have a tight-knit community that takes care of its own.

"I worry about not being able to get back here," she said. "I'd rather be stuck on this side than that side."

Along with the 30,000 residents and visitors asked to leave Hatteras Island, 5,000 more tourists were ordered to leave Ocracoke Island, which is only accessible by ferry and airplane.

Farther to the south, Carteret County Emergency Services director Jo Ann Smith said the evacuation order for people on the barrier island known as Bogue Banks was starting at 5 a.m. It wasn't immediately known how many people the order would affect.

"We just stress to them the importance of if they are going to stay that they contact relatives and let the relatives know that they are staying," she said.

Many people - boaters, beachgoers and residents alike - were adopting a wait-and-see approach, making simple preparations such as stocking up on food or attaching hurricane shutters to their houses. But with the likelihood that the storm's ultimate path will become clear on today, officials expect planning to shift into high gear.

"Post-Katrina, people are really sensitive to storm preparedness," said Atlantic Beach, N.C., Mayor Trace Cooper. "I don't think we're going to see too many people sticking around and saying they're going to have hurricane parties. You see enough pictures of people waiting on their roofs to be rescued and you decide to take precautions."

The North Carolina National Guard was deploying 80 troops to help and President Barack Obama declared an emergency in the state. The declaration authorized the Department of Homeland Security and Federal Emergency Management Agency to coordinate all disaster relief efforts.

As Earl whirled into a powerful Category 4 storm, the governors of North Carolina, Virginia and Maryland declared states of emergency, the USS Cole hustled to return to its port in Virginia and volunteers carried sea turtle nests to safety. The highest storm category is 5, which has winds of 155 mph and higher.

In Boston, some boaters had already pulled their crafts from the water in anticipation of rough seas, said Harwich Assistant Harbor Master Heinz Proft. The Labor Day weekend is about the time of year when people start pulling their boats anyway, so some are just accelerating the process.

"It's been a small percentage so far, but we are encouraging people to be proactive," he said.

In Virginia, Gov. Bob McDonnell activated the National Guard and sent 200 troops to the Hampton Roads area on Chesapeake Bay. The area was not expected to get the brunt of Earl, but many remember the surprise fury of Isabel, which killed 33 people and caused $1.6 billion in damage in September 2003.

Tugboat captain Randy Francis planned to ride out the storm on his 40-foot trawler named "Invictus" at a marina in Norfolk, Va. He said most people didn't appear to be taking the hurricane seriously.

"I was somewhat frustrated that they were somewhat nonchalant about it here," Francis said. "I'd just rather be safe than sorry."

Red Cross officials in New York prepared to open as many as 50 shelters on Long Island that could house up to 60,000 people in an emergency.

Emergency officials on Cape Cod braced for their first major storm since Hurricane Bob brought winds of up to 100 mph to coastal New England in August 1991.