Hurricane Ophelia lashes eastern US

Hurricane Ophelia lashed the North Carolina coast with high winds and heavy rains, beginning an anticipated two-day assault that threatened serious flooding and an 11-foot storm surge.

“If you have not heeded the warning before, let me be clear right now: Ophelia is a dangerous storm,” Governor Mike Easley said from Raleigh, appealing especially to those in flood-prone areas to evacuate.

Ophelia was moving so slowly – just 7 mph last night – that authorities expected the storm’s passage through North Carolina to take 48 hours from the start of rainfall on the south-eastern coast to the storm’s anticipated exit into the Atlantic later today.

The storm had sustained winds of 85 mph, the National Hurricane Centre said. Hurricane warnings covered the entire North Carolina coast from the South Carolina line to Virginia, where a tropical storm warning covered the mouth of Chesapeake Bay.

More than 12 inches of rain had fallen on Oak Island at the mouth of the Cape Fear River, said meteorologist Jeff Orrock with the National Weather Service in Raleigh.

More than 120,000 homes and business were without power in eastern North Carolina, electric utilities said.

On Ocean Isle Beach, south of Carolina Beach, a 50-foot (15-meter) section of beachfront road was washed out by heavy surf and the only bridge to the island was closed.

Video broadcast by Durham’s WTVD-TV from Carteret County on the central coast showed a section from the end of a hotel’s fishing pier breaking off and floating away.

Following the criticism of its response to Hurricane Katrina, the Federal Emergency Management Agency had 250 workers on the ground – a larger-than-usual contingent given Ophelia’s size.

FEMA also put a military officer, Coast Guard Rear Admiral Brian Peterman, in place to command any federal response the storm might require.

President George Bush issued an emergency declaration for 37 counties in eastern North Carolina, authorising the Department of Homeland Security and FEMA to co-ordinate disaster relief efforts.