Hurricane Arthur made landfall near the southern end of North Carolina's Outer Banks Thursday night, packing maximum sustained winds of 100 mph as it threatened weekend plans along the eastern seaboard.
The storm, which strengthened to a Category 2 hurricane earlier Thursday evening, reached land about 11:15 p.m. between Cape Lookout and Beaufort, North Carolina, the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said.
Arthur was centered early Friday about 35 miles northwest of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, and 25 miles south-southwest of Manteo, North Carolina, and was moving northeast near 22 mph.
About 21,000 were without power across the Carolinas early Friday, according to Duke Energy's website.
"We're most concerned about flooding inland and also storm surges in our sounds and our rivers further inland," North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory said. An evaluation of storm damage would have to wait until after the sun rose Friday, McCrory said.
Thousands of vacationers in North Carolina were forced to flee the coast as heavy rains and winds were expected to pound the state's popular and flood-prone Outer Banks into Friday. The Banks, a 200-mile string of narrow barrier islands, is home to about 57,000 permanent residents.
Hurricane Arthur was expected to weaken as it travels northward and slings rain along the East Coast. The annual Boston Pops Fourth of July concert and fireworks show was rescheduled for Thursday because of potential heavy rain from Arthur, while fireworks displays in New Jersey, Maine and New Hampshire were postponed until later in the weekend.
Before the storm hit, tourism officials had expected 250,000 people to travel to the Outer Banks for the holiday weekend. McCrory warned people not to risk their safety by trying to salvage their barbecues and pre-paid beach vacations.
Liz Browning Fox, her 84-year-old mother, her dog and 27 homing pigeons were staying home rather than evacuating their home in Buxton, one of seven villages on low-lying Hatteras Island where officials ordered evacuations ahead of the storm. She, her neighbors and officials worried Arthur could bury the only road off the island in sand or salt water, or slice it with a new channel linking the ocean and sound as happened twice in recent years.
"The road getting cut off, the power lines getting cut off, the food getting cut off, that's the big issues. And that's for everyone on the island," said Fox, 60. But she said she stays because she has "family all around. And more of them are older than I am rather than younger. Staying is just what we do."
Carol Dawson, who owns two motels and a store at the Hatteras Island village of Buxton, told the News & Observer of Raleigh that the hurricane brought dread and deja vu.
“This is a badly needed weekend for the businesses here," she said. "For three straight years, we’ve lost the entire fall season."
Arthur, the first named storm of the Atlantic season, prompted a hurricane warning from the southern North Carolina coast to the Virginia border. Tropical storm warnings were in effect for coastal areas as far north as Cape Cod, Massachusetts. A tropical storm watch was in effect for Nova Scotia in Canada.
Commanders at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in Goldsboro, about 150 miles from the coast, sent four KC-135R Stratotankers and more than 50 F-15E Strike Eagles to another base near Dayton, Ohio, to avoid the risk of damage from high winds.
Click here to read more from the News & Observer.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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