Hurricane warnings and watches stretched from North Carolina to Delaware and covered parts of Massachusetts Wednesday as forecasters upgraded Hurricane Earl to a Category 4 storm and warned it will be approaching the East Coast by late Thursday.
“Dangerous and large Hurricane Earl poses a threat to the mid-Atlantic coast,” the National Hurricane Center said Wednesday evening, extending hurricane and tropical storm watches and warnings northward through Massachusetts.
“The core of the hurricane will approach the North Carolina coast by late Thursday,” the center said.
Mandatory evacuation orders were issued for Ocracoke Island, on North Carolina’s Outer Banks, and Cape Lookout National Seashore, as well as Hatteras Island.
Earl had been downgraded to a Category 3 hurricane earlier Wednesday but was judged to be a Category 4 in the National Hurricane’s Center Wednesday 5 p.m forecast.
Full story: Earl, restrengthened to a Category 4, heads toward East Coast – CNN