WASHINGTON, Sept. 1 (UPI) -- President Barack Obama Wednesday declared an emergency exists in North Carolina because of the approach of Hurricane Earl, the White House said.
The president ordered federal aid to supplement state and local responses to the coming storm.
Forecasters at the National Hurricane Center in Miami said late Wednesday Earl was a large and dangerous storm that threatened the U.S. Mid-Atlantic, with watches and warnings extended northward. At 11 p.m. EDT, forecasters said Earl was "a little stronger," with top sustained winds of 140 mph and much higher gusts.
The Category 4 storm was about 520 miles south-southeast of Cape Hatteras, N.C., and was moving toward the north-northwest at 18 mph.
Earl was expected to turn toward the north Thursday and the storm was expected to approach the North Carolina coast by late Thursday and travel to the outer banks of North Carolina Thursday night.
The emergency declaration authorizes the Federal Emergency Management Agency to coordinate all disaster relief efforts intended to alleviate "the hardship and suffering caused by the emergency on the local population, and to provide appropriate assistance for required emergency measures, authorized under Title V of the Stafford Act, to save lives and to protect property and public health and safety, and to lessen or avert the threat of a catastrophe in Beaufort, Bertie, Camden, Chowan, Columbus, Craven, Currituck, Dare, Gates, Hyde, New Hanover, Onslow, Pamlico, Pasquotank, Perquimans, Pitt, Tyrrell, and Washington Counties."
