Tropical Storm Arthur has strengthened to a hurricane early Thursday and is now heading towards North Carolina’s thin ribbon of barrier islands for the Fourth of July holiday.
A mandatory evacuation of Hatteras Island, the easternmost strip of land in the Outer Banks has started and about the same time, the National Hurricane Center upgraded the slow-moving tropical storm to hurricane state.
Forecasters expect Arthur to whip past the Outer Banks — a 200-mile string of narrow barrier islands with about 57,000 permanent residents — late Thursday or early Friday grazing the area around the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse and bringing rain, heavy winds, storm surge and dangerous rip tides. At 2 p.m. ET, the storm was about 60 miles off the South Carolina coast between Charleston and Georgetown; hurricane-force winds of 90 mph extended 25 miles from the center and tropical storm force winds extended 115 mph from the eye.
Ocracoke Island, which sits to the west of Hatteras Island about 25 miles from the mouth of the Pamlico River, will be inaccessible starting 5 p.m. Thursday when North Carolina shutters its ferry service until after the storm. The island, which has a permanent population of about 950 people, is accessible only by boat.
Before the storm, tourism officials had expected 250,000 people to travel to the Outer Banks for the holiday weekend. North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory warned people not to risk their safety by trying to salvage their picnics, barbecues and pre-paid beach cottage vacations.
