Earl forces out tourists

RALEIGH, North Carolina – Powerful Hurricane Earl wheeled toward the East Coast, driving the first tourists from North Carolina vacation islands and threatening damaging winds and waves up the Atlantic seaboard over Labour Day weekend.
Visitors were taking ferries off Ocracoke Island and told to leave neighbouring Cape Hatteras in North Carolina’s Outer Banks, and federal authorities have warned people all along the Eastern seaboard to be prepared to evacuate.
Earl was still more than 700 miles south-southeast of Cape Hatteras, with top sustained winds of 125 mph. It was on track to near the North Carolina shore late today or early tomorrow and then blow north off the coast, with forecasters cautioning that it was still too early to tell how close the storm may come to land. (AP)