Wall Street Journal :
Hurricane Arthur began moving offshore and away from North Carolina on Friday morning, after passing over the southern end of the Outer Banks with winds of about 100 miles an hour and ruining plans for Fourth of July picnics and fireworks displays along the East Coast.
Friday morning Arthur was downgraded to a Category 1 storm. The US National Hurricane Center said Arthur’s maximum sustained winds have decreased to 90 miles an hour with additional weakening expected.
Meanwhile, a new tropical storm warning was issued for Nova Scotia in Canada, where Arthur is expected to head as it moves northeast.
The storm was expected to bring heavy rains, high wind gusts and dangerous surf from Myrtle Beach, S.C., to the Hamptons in New York and Cape Cod in Massachusetts.
“This is right on target,” said National Hurricane Center spokesman Dennis Feltgen.
As of 7 a.m. EDT Friday, the hurricane was centered about 65 miles east-northeast of Kitty Hawk, N.C., and 95 miles east-southeast of Norfolk, Va., the Associated Press reported. The storm was moving northeast near 23 miles an hour.
More than 41,000 customers in North Carolina were without power as of Friday morning, State Emergency Operations spokesman Rick Martinez told the AP. Carteret County had 11,000 outages, the most of any county, he said.
After grazing the North Carolina coast Thursday night, the center of the storm was expected to turn away from land Friday morning and pass by the coastline of southern New England Friday night, according to the hurricane center. It was expected to reach Nova
Scotia on Saturday morning. Boston decided to hold its fireworks display on Thursday rather than Friday, to avoid the brunt of the storm. A severe thunderstorm swept through Boston and parts of Massachusetts and southern New Hampshire late Thursday, causing pockets of power outages in the region.
North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory declared a state of emergency in 25 counties along or close to the state’s coast. State and local officials urged residents and visitors to take precautions, but only Dare County declared a mandatory evacuation, for Hatteras Island, a barrier island on the Outer Banks. Ocracoke Island, also on the Outer Banks, issued a voluntary evacuation.
“Everybody just understands that this is something we can’t control,” Kathryn Bryan with the Dare County sheriff’s office said, adding that the exodus has been running smoothly.
Some communities canceled fireworks, picnics and other festivities, even though the brunt of the storm is expected to pass the state by Friday morning. “We anticipate a beautiful holiday weekend after Hurricane Arthur is out of North Carolina,” Mr. McCrory said in a news conference Thursday. “But again, we’re ready for anything…Don’t put your stupid hat on.”
North Carolina’s emergency-management agency readied bulldozers and National Guard soldiers for response and recovery efforts.
Some resisted the evacuation order on Hatteras Island. Pat Weston, who has lived on the island for about 15 years, said she is part of a large community of residents who have never left for a hurricane.
“We’re a village. We’re a community that pulls together in times of disaster. It’s amazing,” she said, adding that many of the people in the area are Community Emergency Response Team members and know how to operate amateur radios. They have generators, food and storm shutters. “You just stay calm and act accordingly. You don’t panic…We’ve done this before.”
In Wrightsville Beach, rain pelted the faces of the few thrill-seekers on the beach Thursday afternoon, as gusts of wind reached 40 miles an hour.
Ocean rescue crews shooed away the few remaining swimmers near Johnnie Mercer’s fishing pier just before 4 p.m. Tourists on Saturday-to-Saturday home or condo rentals settled in with card games, movies and local news broadcasts to wait out the heart of the storm.
Palm trees bent at a 45-degree angle in the wind, and water collected in the driveways of the houses nearest the ocean.
Oceanic Restaurant, which has a porch overlooking the beach, said it expected the bad weather to hurt business, but not by much. Storm watchers love to watch the chaotic waves and clouds, said general manager Adele McMurtrey. She said the restaurant expected “a full rebound tomorrow. It’s always gorgeous after a storm.”
At the scuba-diving facility Olympus Dive Center in Morehead City, N.C., employees brought in the boats from the docks and canceled all diving trips for Thursday and Friday. Assistant manager Jon Belisario estimated the business would lose about $7,000 over the holiday weekend because of the storm.
“We can’t control this,” he said. “Some people are definitely frustrated [and] have been planning to come here for the Fourth of July for a year. It’s pretty heartbreaking.”
Hurricane Arthur began moving offshore and away from North Carolina on Friday morning, after passing over the southern end of the Outer Banks with winds of about 100 miles an hour and ruining plans for Fourth of July picnics and fireworks displays along the East Coast.
Friday morning Arthur was downgraded to a Category 1 storm. The US National Hurricane Center said Arthur’s maximum sustained winds have decreased to 90 miles an hour with additional weakening expected.
Meanwhile, a new tropical storm warning was issued for Nova Scotia in Canada, where Arthur is expected to head as it moves northeast.
The storm was expected to bring heavy rains, high wind gusts and dangerous surf from Myrtle Beach, S.C., to the Hamptons in New York and Cape Cod in Massachusetts.
“This is right on target,” said National Hurricane Center spokesman Dennis Feltgen.
As of 7 a.m. EDT Friday, the hurricane was centered about 65 miles east-northeast of Kitty Hawk, N.C., and 95 miles east-southeast of Norfolk, Va., the Associated Press reported. The storm was moving northeast near 23 miles an hour.
More than 41,000 customers in North Carolina were without power as of Friday morning, State Emergency Operations spokesman Rick Martinez told the AP. Carteret County had 11,000 outages, the most of any county, he said.
After grazing the North Carolina coast Thursday night, the center of the storm was expected to turn away from land Friday morning and pass by the coastline of southern New England Friday night, according to the hurricane center. It was expected to reach Nova
Scotia on Saturday morning. Boston decided to hold its fireworks display on Thursday rather than Friday, to avoid the brunt of the storm. A severe thunderstorm swept through Boston and parts of Massachusetts and southern New Hampshire late Thursday, causing pockets of power outages in the region.
North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory declared a state of emergency in 25 counties along or close to the state’s coast. State and local officials urged residents and visitors to take precautions, but only Dare County declared a mandatory evacuation, for Hatteras Island, a barrier island on the Outer Banks. Ocracoke Island, also on the Outer Banks, issued a voluntary evacuation.
“Everybody just understands that this is something we can’t control,” Kathryn Bryan with the Dare County sheriff’s office said, adding that the exodus has been running smoothly.
Some communities canceled fireworks, picnics and other festivities, even though the brunt of the storm is expected to pass the state by Friday morning. “We anticipate a beautiful holiday weekend after Hurricane Arthur is out of North Carolina,” Mr. McCrory said in a news conference Thursday. “But again, we’re ready for anything…Don’t put your stupid hat on.”
North Carolina’s emergency-management agency readied bulldozers and National Guard soldiers for response and recovery efforts.
Some resisted the evacuation order on Hatteras Island. Pat Weston, who has lived on the island for about 15 years, said she is part of a large community of residents who have never left for a hurricane.
“We’re a village. We’re a community that pulls together in times of disaster. It’s amazing,” she said, adding that many of the people in the area are Community Emergency Response Team members and know how to operate amateur radios. They have generators, food and storm shutters. “You just stay calm and act accordingly. You don’t panic…We’ve done this before.”
In Wrightsville Beach, rain pelted the faces of the few thrill-seekers on the beach Thursday afternoon, as gusts of wind reached 40 miles an hour.
Ocean rescue crews shooed away the few remaining swimmers near Johnnie Mercer’s fishing pier just before 4 p.m. Tourists on Saturday-to-Saturday home or condo rentals settled in with card games, movies and local news broadcasts to wait out the heart of the storm.
Palm trees bent at a 45-degree angle in the wind, and water collected in the driveways of the houses nearest the ocean.
Oceanic Restaurant, which has a porch overlooking the beach, said it expected the bad weather to hurt business, but not by much. Storm watchers love to watch the chaotic waves and clouds, said general manager Adele McMurtrey. She said the restaurant expected “a full rebound tomorrow. It’s always gorgeous after a storm.”
At the scuba-diving facility Olympus Dive Center in Morehead City, N.C., employees brought in the boats from the docks and canceled all diving trips for Thursday and Friday. Assistant manager Jon Belisario estimated the business would lose about $7,000 over the holiday weekend because of the storm.
“We can’t control this,” he said. “Some people are definitely frustrated [and] have been planning to come here for the Fourth of July for a year. It’s pretty heartbreaking.”
