Earl still a howler

The last ferry left for the mainland, and coastal residents hunkered down at home as Hurricane Earl closed in with 105 mph winds yesterday on North Carolina's dangerously exposed Outer Banks, the first and perhaps most destructive stop on the storm's projected journey up the Eastern Seaboard.

The hurricane's squalls began to lash the long ribbon of barrier islands last night. Gusts above 40 mph made signs shake and the heavy rain fall sideways in Buxton, the southeasternmost tip of the Outer Banks.

Hurricane Earl's winds were slowing, from 140 mph early yesterday to 105 mph, Category 2 strength, by late yesterday. But forecasters warned that it remained powerful, with hurricane-force winds of 74 mph or more extending 70 miles from its center and tropical storm-force winds of at least 35 mph reaching more than 200 miles out.

"It's interesting to me to just see what Mother Nature can do," said Jay Lopez, 36, of Frisco, as the wind howled through Buxton.

Federal, state and local authorities were waiting for daybreak to begin patrolling the coast to check for damage.

The U.S. Coast Guard planned an airplane flyover of the Outer Banks and were prepared for search-and-rescue helicopter flights. State transportation officials were waiting to check N.C. 12, which connects the Outer Banks with the mainland, for washouts and downed trees.

The eye of the hurricane was expected to get as close as 55 miles east of the Outer Banks about 2 a.m. today, meteorologist Hal Austin of the National Weather Service said. The coast is expected to be lashed by hurricane-force winds for a couple of hours with a storm surge of up to 5 feet and waves 18 feet high.

"It's spitting rain. It's probably going to get a little hairy. We're prepared for it. My biggest concern is the ocean, not the wind," said Karen Denson Miller, who decided to stay on Hatteras Island with friends.

The storm late yesterday was about 100 miles south of Cape Hatteras.

Earl's arrival could mark the start of at least 24 hours of stormy, windy weather along the East Coast. During its march up the Atlantic, it could snarl travelers' Labor Day weekend plans and strike a second forceful blow to the vacation homes and cottages on Long Island, Nantucket Island and Cape Cod. Forecast models showed the most likely place Earl will make landfall is western Nova Scotia, Canada, where it could still be a hurricane, said Ed Rappaport, the deputy director of the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

It was unclear exactly how close Earl's center and its strongest winds would get to land. But Craig Fugate, the administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said that people shouldn't wait for the next forecast to act.

Shelters were open in inland North Carolina, and officials on Nantucket Island, Mass., planned to set up a shelter at a high school today. North Carolina shut down ferry service between the Outer Banks and the mainland. Boats were being pulled from the water in the Northeast, and lobstermen in Maine set their traps out in deeper water to protect them.

Govs. Deval Patrick of Massachusetts and Donald Carcieri of Rhode Island declared states of emergency. Similar declarations have also made in North Carolina, Virginia and Maryland.

As of last night, though, the only evacuations ordered were on the Outer Banks. About 35,000 tourists and residents were urged to leave.

A slow winding down was expected to continue as the storm moved into cooler water, but forecasters warned that the size of the storm's wind field was increasing, similar to what happened when Hurricane Katrina approached the Gulf Coast five years ago.

"It will be bigger. The storm won't be as strong, but they spread out as they go north, and the rain will be spreading from New England," said Bill Read, the director of the hurricane center.

In North Carolina, the end of an already dilapidated wooden pier in Frisco, one of the villages on Hatteras Island, collapsed after being battered by high surf yesterday. It had been closed to the public because of past storm damage.

Hundreds of the Outer Banks' more hardy residents gassed up their generators and planned to hunker down at home behind their boarded-up windows, even though officials warned them that it could be three days before they could expect any help and that storm surge could again slice through the islands. It took crews two months to fill the breach and rebuild N.C. 12, the only road to the mainland, when Hurricane Isabel carved a 2,000-foot-wide channel in 2003.

"It's kind of nerve-racking, but I've been through this before," said Herma De Gier, 65, who has lived in the village of Avon since 1984. De Gier said she will ride out the storm at a neighbor's house.

Officials warned that once the winds began to pick up, police, firefighters and paramedics probably weren't going to answer emergency calls.

"Once this storm comes in and becomes serious, once it's at its worst point, we are not going to put any emergency worker in harm's way," Gov. Bev Perdue said.

Forecasters said that after Earl passes the Outer Banks, a kink in the jetstream over the eastern United States should push the storm away from the coast.

Earl is expected to move north-northeast for much of today, staying away from New Jersey and the other mid-Atlantic states, but also passing very close to Long Island, Cape Cod and Nantucket, which could get gusts up to 100 mph.

The storm is expected to finally move ashore in Canada Saturday afternoon.

Much of New England should expect strong, gusty winds, along with fallen trees and downed power lines, forecasters said.

"This is the strongest hurricane to threaten the Northeast and New England since Hurricane Bob in 1991," said Dennis Feltgen, a meteorologist with the hurricane center.

But many people in Nantucket weren't too worried about Earl. Arno's Main Street Grill plans to stay open today as long as possible, owner Chris Morris said. The hurricane might even be good for business.

"There's not much else to do during a hurricane besides eat and drink," he said.

"I mean, there's only so many times you can visit the whaling museum."