A hurricane moving across the Caribbean has strengthened to a Category 4 storm leading to further warnings being issued.
Hurricane Earl lashed the northeast Caribbean islands yesterday, and was expected to swipe the US East Coast in the next few days, the US National Hurricane Center said.
Earl is the second major hurricane of the 2010 Atlantic season.
The hurricanel had sustained winds of 135 mph (215 kph) and could strengthen in the next two days, the forecasters warnd.
The hurricane was moving west-northwest on a curving track that the National Hurricane Center said would take it near Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, on Thursday and Friday.
A direct hit could not be ruled out, and Earl is expected to bring torrential rain, dangerous seas and surf and gusting wind to the Atlantic Coast from North Carolina to New England and Canada, said Alex Sosnowski, a senior meteorologist for private forecaster AccuWeather.
"How nasty the weather gets in this region will depend on the exact track of Earl and its proximity to the coast," Sosnowski said in a posting on the AccuWeather website.
On its current path, Earl poses no threat to the Gulf of Mexico, where major US oil and gas installations are located.
Earlier yesterday, the hurricane buffeted the northernmost Leeward Islands of the Caribbean with fierce winds, driving rain and pounding waves as it passed.
Residents on the island of St. Martin/St. Maarten, its two halves respectively administered by France and the Netherlands, said Earl's passage caused power cuts and toppled trees.
There were no immediate reports of casualties.
In Antigua, some flooding in low-lying areas was reported. After the hurricane passed, Antigua and Barbuda Governor General Dame Louise Lake-Tack declared a national holiday to allow residents of the twin-island state to mop up.
The forecasters said hurricane conditions would gradually subside over Puerto Rico, while the Turks and Caicos Islands and the southeast Bahamas would get tropical storm conditions as Earl passed east of them in the next few days.
The ports of the US Virgin Islands and the Puerto Rican ports of Vieques, Culebra, Fajardo, and San Juan were closed, the US Coast Guard said. Government offices and schools in eastern Puerto Rico were shut.
Reuters