The first named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season has prompted a hurricane warning for a wide stretch of the North Carolina coast.

Hurricane Ophelia picked up strength as it closed in on North Carolina today, but many in the storm's path had shrugged off the threat of wind and flooding rain and ignored pleas to evacuate.

Millions of people remained without power today as Hurricane Isabel, which caused at least 24 deaths and potentially billions of dollars in damage, ebbed away from America‘s mid-Atlantic states.