Hurricane Arthur hits North Carolina as a Category 2 storm

Late Thursday night Hurricane Arthur officially made landfall in North Carolina with 100 mph winds, moving approximately 23 mph northeast. Friday morning, 22,000 are said to be without electricity as July 4th weekend begins.

Hurricane Arthur heading to North Carolina photo/NOAA satellite image

Duke Electric says the majority affected by the raging storm were in Carteret County, but then added about 4,000 customers already have power back. As of 5 a.m. Friday, the hurricane was centered about 20 miles east of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina and was moving northeast at 23 mph.

“We’re most concerned about flooding inland and also storm surges in our sounds and our rivers further inland,” North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory said Thursday before adding that an official evaluation of storm damage would begin Friday.

Fox News noted in their July 4th coverage that “Thousands of vacationers in North Carolina were forced to flee the coast as heavy rains and winds were expected to pound the state’s popular and flood-prone Outer Banks into Friday.”

Like most storms Hurricane Arthur was expected to weaken as it travels northward, skirts across lands. Fourth of July events such as fireworks displays are being postponed from Maine to New Hampshire, down to New Jersey due to the potential of heavy rain.

The National Hurricane Center said that little additional change in strength was expected and that the storm would begin weakening Friday night as it moves up the East coast. It is projected to be near or over western Nova Scotia early Saturday.

Hurricane warnings are in still effect for most of northeastern North Carolina. Tornadoes are possible in the Carolinas and parts of southeastern Virginia through Friday morning. Rainfall of 4 to 6 inches is expected with some areas getting as much as 8 inches in a brief time.

A tropical storm warning is in effect from north of Duck, N.C., to Virginia’s Eastern Shore. The warning also includes Virginia Beach, Norfolk, Chesapeake and Portsmouth.

Commanders at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in Goldsboro, about 150 miles from the coast, sent four KC-135R Stratotankers and more than 50 F-15E Strike Eagles to another base near Dayton, Ohio, to avoid the risk of damage from high winds according to the Fox report.

Arthur is the first named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season.