Ophelia lurks off Carolina coast, could strengthen

SALVO, N.C. -- Hurricane Ophelia sat nearly stationary off the coast of the southeastern United States last night and could hit North Carolina later in the week, forecasters said.

Warning of the possibility of coastal flooding, Governor Mike Easley sent 200 National Guard soldiers to staging centers in eastern North Carolina and ordered a mandatory evacuation of tourists visiting fragile Ocracoke Island on the Outer Banks, reachable only by ferry.

Residents of the island were allowed to stay.

Though the storm's center was more than 200 miles from land, the US National Hurricane Center said just before midnight last night that Ophelia was moving toward the west-southwest after spending the day parked south of Cape Hatteras. Ophelia was barely sustaining winds of 75 miles per hour, but it was piling up heavy surf that pounded the beaches.

Easley had declared a state of emergency on Saturday and local officials issued the evacuation order for nonresidents on Ocracoke.

A hurricane watch was in effect for 250 miles of coastline from Edisto Beach, S.C., north to Cape Lookout, N.C., cautioning residents that fierce winds and other hurricane conditions were possible within 36 hours, the hurricane center said.

A tropical storm warning was issued for that area south to the Santee River in South Carolina, alerting residents that they could feel the outer fringes of the storm in the next 24 hours.

Ophelia was a Category 1 hurricane on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale, meaning it could be accompanied by a 4- to 5-foot storm surge.

Such storms can flood coastal roads and damage piers, trees, and unanchored mobile homes but rarely cause structural damage.

Hurricane Katrina was a far more powerful Category 4 storm when it hit the US Gulf Coast.

More than 3,000 tourists and 800 residents had been on Ocracoke Island, Hyde County Emergency Management Coordinator Tony Spencer said.

''The majority of the nonresidents appear to have left. The ferries were full last night and this morning," Spencer said by telephone from the island yesterday.

More than 100,000 tourists and residents were on the vulnerable islands of the Outer Banks in two other North Carolina counties, Dare and Currituck, Dare County Emergency Management Coordinator Sandy Sanderson said.

Dare County will decide today whether to order evacuation of Hatteras Island on the Outer Banks.

''We're in a holding pattern," Sanderson said.

The storm sent gusty winds and 6-foot waves over parts of the North Carolina coast, eroding beaches and triggering dangerous rip currents. The beaches were largely deserted yesterday despite sunny weather.

The National Weather Service in Morehead City said parts of the state could see 7 inches of rain and localized flooding tomorrow and Wednesday.