OCRACOKE, N.C. (AP) — The Latest on Hurricane Dorian: (all times local):
8:20 p.m.
Hurricane Dorian is getting closer to North Carolina as it continues to weaken.
In an 8 p.m. advisory, the National Hurricane Center says the storm is about 30 miles (48 miles) south of Cape Fear, North Carolina, near the state’s border with South Carolina.
Forecasters say the Category 2 storm has maximum sustained winds of 100 mph (161 kph) and is moving northeast at 10 mph (16 kph).
A hurricane warning remains in effect from the South Santee River in South Carolina to the border between North Carolina and Virginia.
Forecasters expect the storm to produce life-threatening storm surges, dangerous winds and flash floods along coastal areas in the Carolinas and southeast Virginia.
By Thursday evening, the Category 2 storm was about 45 miles from Myrtle Beach, S.C., slowly weakening as it moved northeastward up the East Coast, according to the National Hurricane Center. Though the eye of the storm has so far remained offshore, the center’s models indicate that it could make landfall on the Outer Banks of North Carolina on Friday.
The eye does not have to make landfall for the storm to cause serious damage. Hurricane-strength winds, extending as far as 60 miles from the storm center, pummeled parts of the South Carolina coast on Thursday. At one point, the storm’s strongest winds, in the western wall of the eye, were just 10 to 15 miles offshore. Forecasters said storm surge waters could flood up to eight feet above normal tide levels in some areas.
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8:20 p.m.
A North Carolina utility provider says it has workers at the ready to be deployed once Hurricane Dorian moves away from the coast.
North Carolina’s Electric Cooperatives said in a news release that as of 7 p.m. on Thursday, 2,500 electric cooperative members are without power. The outages are centered on coastal communities on the border with South Carolina.
The news release says crews worked Thursday morning to restore power to about 5,000 cooperative members who lost electricity due to tornadoes in Brunswick and Carteret counties.
Senior vice president Mike Burnette says the real story will occur overnight as winds increase and cause trees and branches to fall on power lines.
He said that also means crews could encounter problems accessing areas where lines need to be rebuilt. He says as a result, customers should be prepared for the possibility of prolonged power outages.