Hurricane Earl Should Pose No Problem For Lake Gaston Area
September 2, 2010

Hurricane Earl should pose little or no problem for the Lake Gaston area unless it takes an unexpected turn to the west.

Right now (Thursday midday), the center of the category four hurricane is forecast to stay about 50 miles off the coast as it passes by overnight. Winds near the center of Earl are about 140 mph.  Winds in the range of 70 to 90 miles an hour are forecast along the Outer Banks late Thursday into Friday morning.  Further west, in the Lake Gaston area, winds might be in the range of 30 to 35 mph.

Forecasters at the National Hurricane Center say rain will spread inland perhaps as far as the I-95 corridor. That should mean little or no rain to mar the Littleton-Lake Gaston Festival and other Labor Day activities.

Despite the forecast of few if any problems here, Halifax County (at the eastern end of Lake Gaston) Emergency Management Coordinator Tina Hinton met with state officials by way of phone this morning. She's optimistic there will be little or no damage.

But Hinton and others say it all depends on Hurricane Earl taking a slight turn to the East as it moves up the coast. Forecasters at the National Hurricane Center say they are pretty confident that will happen but they caution people should check on the storm's progress from time to time and be prepared to change their plans. 

A hurricane warning remains in effect for all of the Outer Banks and Core Banks and extended from the Bogue Inlet, north of Camp Lejeune, to the southern coast of Massachusetts.

Rain was reported in Wrightsville Beach this morning. Earl’s first significant encounter with the U.S. mainland should come around midnight today, as the storm is forecast to just off Cape Hatteras, bringing wind gusts of up to 100 mph and several feet of storm surge both from the Atlantic and the sounds to the west of the islands.

Early today though, the Outer Banks had only light winds and high clouds as the eye of Earl was hundreds of miles south of Cape Hatteras. Those conditions were expected to deteriorate throughout the day, said National Hurricane Center forecaster Todd Kimberline.  

Visitors on the northern end of the Outer Banks are being ordered to leave before Hurricane Earl passes by the state. Currituck County issued an evacuation order for visitors at 8:30 a.m. today. Permanent residents of the area are being urged to use extreme caution.

Gov. Bev Perdue declared a state of emergency and warned people along the coast not to let down their guard. As part of North Carolina's preparations, Perdue activated 81 members of the North Carolina National Guard and ordered an additional 151 to be on standby.
Swift-water rescue teams were also put on standby, and the State Highway Patrol was called to assist with evacuations.

President Barack Obama has also declared an emergency in the state. The declaration authorizes the Department of Homeland Security and Federal Emergency Management Agency to coordinate all disaster relief efforts.