Hurricane, Hurricane Earl | featured news

A weakened hurricane Earl skirts past North Carolina's Outer Banks and continues up the US east coast as a "category two" storm.

Hurricane Earl blew toward the Eastern Seaboard on Thursday as a major storm with winds of around 145 mph as forecasters tried to pinpoint exactly how close the strongest gales and heaviest surge would get to North Carolina's fragile chain of barrier islands.

As Hurricane Earl continues to spin toward the East Coast, authorities in North Carolina are ordering more people to get out of the way.

Forecast to gain "major" Category 3 status, Hurricane Earl was bearing down on the northern Leeward Islands Sunday, the National Hurricane Center said.