Arthur strengthened into a Category 2 hurricane with winds increasing to 100 mph on Thursday night as it threatened to strike near the North Carolina coast on Independence Day.
Thousands of vacationers and residents fled parts of the state’s popular but flood-prone Outer Banks, and Fourth of July celebrations up and down the East Coast were postponed or faced the threat of cancelation.
The U.S. National Hurricane Center said little additional change in strength was expected Thursday night and Friday and that the storm would begin weakening Friday night.
On Thursday night, Arthur was located about 55 miles northeast of Cape Fear, North Carolina, and about 110 miles southwest of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. It was moving northeast at 15 mph.
In the Outer Banks, Nichole Specht, 27, and Ryan Witman, 28, left Hatteras Island at 3:30 a.m. Thursday, beating the expected traffic jam. The island was under an evacuation order, with no traffic allowed in. Officials asked an estimated 35,000 residents and travelers to leave through North Carolina Route 12, the only road on and off Hatteras.
Specht and Witman found the road wide open for their return home to Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Specht said her parents left their rental later, at 5 a.m., and also found clear sailing.
“We were just saying we were really, really lucky this year that the weather was so great, and then this,” Specht said as she ended a two-week vacation that included scouting sites for the couple’s wedding next year.
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