East Coast braces for Tropical Storm Arthur

RODANTHE, N.C. – As one of the year’s busiest travel weekends approaches, so does another visitor: Tropical Storm Arthur, expected to grow into a hurricane by the Fourth of July and hit most harshly at North Carolina’s Outer Banks, a popular getaway spot of thin barrier islands along the shore.

The first named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season prompted a hurricane warning for a wide swath of the North Carolina coast and prompted authorities to order a mandatory evacuation for visitors to the Outer Banks’ Hatteras Island. Residents also were advised to leave the island. A voluntary evacuation was announced for the Outer Banks’ Ocracoke Island, accessible only by ferry.

Officials, hotel owners and would-be vacationers as far north as New England were also carefully watching forecasts. The storm was enough of a concern that officials in Boston decided to move the annual Boston Pops July Fourth concert and fireworks show up by a day because of potential heavy rain Friday night. And riptides were a threat as far north as New Jersey.

The Outer Banks will be especially vulnerable, forecasters said. As word of the mandatory evacuation on Hatteras Island spread, a steady stream of cars, trailers and recreational vehicles began to roll north on North Carolina Highway 12, a two-lane road that is the only way to the mainland other than ferries to the south. Home to the famous Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, the island is just a narrow spit of land. Twice in recent years, storm-driven waves have sliced N.C. 12, rendering it impassable.

One of the visitors who came for a vacation but planned to leave today was Gary Reinhardt, 63, of Sarasota, Florida.

“I’m worried about the road. It took way too long to get here,” he said, a reference to the two-and-a-half-hour wait he and his wife, Lori Reinhardt, had to endure trying to get onto the island last Sunday, when no storms were in sight and there was no pressure to leave.

The Reinhardts said they were vacationing with 22 family members from California, Nebraska and Michigan. All planned to leave today.

Other areas of the Outer Banks were taking a cautious but still-optimistic approach: No evacuations had been ordered for areas north of Hatteras, including the popular town of Kill Devil Hills, which was the site of the Wright brothers’ first controlled, powered airplane flights in December 1903.

Tourism officials expect about 250,000 people to visit the Outer Banks and stay in hotels and rental homes for the long holiday weekend. “We want everybody to be safe and prepared, but we are not overly concerned at this point,” said Lee Nettles, the executive director of the Outer Banks Visitors Bureau. He noted that forecasters were predicting the storm would move fast and be less severe than others in locals’ memories.

The forecast did not call for a landfall in the U.S., but officials and travelers north to New England kept an eye on the storm’s projected path. Many areas warned of upcoming rain, wind and potential riptides.

In Boston, officials said the July Fourth Boston Pops concert was being rescheduled to today, what appears to be the best of two potential bad weather days – although it could also be canceled if the weather is bad enough, said State Police Col. Timothy Alben.

The performance takes place in the Hatch Shell along the Charles River Esplanade. Fireworks are set off from barges on the river. Thousands of people usually attend.

Arthur is expected to pass well east of New England over the weekend.

By Wednesday night, the storm was 180 miles southeast of Charleston, South Carolina. It was moving north about 8 mph with maximum sustained winds of 70 mph. The National Hurricane Center predicted it would grow to a Category 1 hurricane with sustained winds of at least 74 mph either late Wednesday or sometime today.

The worst of the storm should occur at Cape Hatteras about dawn Friday, with 3 to 5 inches of rain and sustained winds up to 85 mph, said Tony Saavedra, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service. But forecasters said that by later Friday, the effects of Arthur would be past the Outer Banks, with the rest of the weekend salvaged.