US: Hurricane Alex strengthened yesterday as it swirled through the Atlantic off North Carolina and closed in to deal a glancing blow to the Outer Banks, a chain of barrier islands dotted with vacation homes.
Alex was already pounding the coast with high winds and heavy seas and by late morning was carrying maximum winds of 100 m.p.h. (160 k.p.h.), the National Hurricane Centre in Miami said.
The first named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season was on a track that was expected to keep its core just out to sea, the hurricane centre said.
However, it warned that it could cause torrential rain and storm surge flooding of up to five feet (1.5 metres) above normal tides. Some ferry services to the Outer Banks, a fragile 100-mile-long island chain, were halted, and some summer visitors to the popular vacation spot left to avoid the storm.
Alex's centre was about 40 miles (65km) south-south-west of Cape Hatteras at 11 a.m. (1500 GMT), at latitude 34.7 north, longitude 75.8 west, the centre said.
The storm, moving north-east at about 15 m.p.h. (25 k.p.h.), was on a course that would take it very close to the Outer Banks in the coming hours.
Alex, which formed near the coast over the weekend, was expected to dump up to six inches of rain in some areas.
Known for its miles of undeveloped seashore, the Outer Banks is home to 55,000 permanent residents and many thousands more summer visitors.
Last September Hurricane Isabel slammed ashore with 100 m.p.h. (160 k.p.h.) winds at Ocracoke Island on the Outer Banks before sweeping up through Virginia and states further north.
According to the hurricane centre, Isabel was directly to blame for 16 deaths and caused damage worth $3.37 billion.
Yesterday ferries from the mainland over the Pamlico Sound to Ocracoke Island were shut because of expected high winds. The Cherry Branch ferry across the Pamlico river south-east of New Bern was also closed.
"We've had winds of 40-45 m.p.h. (64-72 k.p.h.) there," Mr Charlie Utz, the ferries' administrative officer, said by telephone from Morehead City.
On Ocracoke Island, a 16-mile (25km) barrier island south-west of Cape Hatteras that is reachable only by boat or air, winds were reaching 30 m.p.h. (48 k.p.h.)," said Mr David Styron, Ocracoke operations manager for the state Ferry Division, said around 9 a.m. (1300 GMT).
He estimated that as many as 4,500 residents and visitors were on the island earlier in the week. There has been no mandatory evacuation of the island, "but a lot (of visitors) left on their own," Mr Styron said.
A hurricane warning was in effect for the coastline from Cape Lookout on the southern end of the Outer Banks up to Oregon Inlet, which is just south of Nags Head.
A tropical storm warning, which means possible tropical storm conditions occurring in the coming 24 hours, was in effect from north of the Oregon Inlet to the North Carolina border with Virginia and from Cape Lookout to Surf City, North Carolina. - (Reuters)