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Hurricane Earl: Warning Issued for Massachusetts Coast

Storm's winds swirling at 145mph

By the Associated Press

Posted Sep 2, 2010 6:49 AM CDT | Updated Sep 2, 2010 10:33 AM CDT

(AP) – Hurricane Earl barreled toward the Eastern Seaboard today as a powerful Category 4 storm with winds swirling at around 145mph. Forecasters were trying to pinpoint how close the strongest winds and heaviest surge would get to North Carolina's fragile chain of barrier islands, as the National Hurricane Center in Miami issued a hurricane warning for part of the Massachusetts coast including Nantucket.

The governors of North Carolina, Virginia, and Maryland had declared states of emergency. Earl's first encounter with the US mainland should come around midnight, as the storm is forecast to pass just off North Carolina's Cape Hatteras, bringing wind gusts of up to 100mph. While thousands of tourists heeded calls to evacuate Hatteras, locals vowed to ride out Earl, preparing to spend days stranded from the mainland. "I worry about not being able to get back here," says one. "I'd rather be stuck on this side than that side."

A fisherman waits on the end of the Oceanana Pier as Hurricane Earl heads toward the eastern coast in Atlantic Beach, NC, Wednesday, Sept. 1, 2010. (AP Photo/Chuck Burton)

A window is boarded up with a message at the Buxton Beach Motel in Buxton, NC, Wednesday, Sept. 1, 2010 as Hurricane Earl approaches North Carolina's Outer Banks. (AP Photo/Gerry Broome)

This image provided by NASA shows Hurricane Earl taken at 12:45am EDT Thursday Sept. 2, 2010. (AP Photo/NASA)

A sign that reads "Go away Earl" outside a hotel is seen as the sun sets in Buxton, NC, Wednesday, Sept. 1, 2010. (AP Photo/The News & Observer, Chuck Liddy)

Cars stream past an evacuation message for Hatteras Island at the entrance to the Cape Hatteras National Seashore in Nags Head, NC, Wednesday, Sept. 1, 2010. (AP Photo/Gerry Broome)

Chase Woolridge, from left, Whit Lombardo, Tyler Woolridge, and Jennifer Magner climb on sand bags along the southern beach in Nags Head, NC, Wednesday, Sept. 1, 2010. (AP Photo/Gerry Broome)

Sand bags that protected now-condemned houses along the southern beach are seen in Nags Head, N.C., Wednesday, Sept. 1, 2010. (AP Photo/Gerry Broome)

Tourist flock to Virginia Beach as Hurricane Earl heads towards the eastern coast on Wednesday, Sept. 1, 2010 in Virginia Beach, Va. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

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Hurricane Earl: Warning Issued for Massachusetts Coast

Storm's winds swirling at 145mph

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Hurricane Warning Issued for NC

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