Hurricane Earl heads toward US East Coast

8/31/2010 05:30:18 AM

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico – Powerful Hurricane Earl hurtled toward the US East Coast on Tuesday, amid warnings it may cause catastrophic damage after dumping heavy rain and wind on Caribbean islands.

Packing fierce winds of up to 135 miles an hour, Earl, now a powerful Category Four storm, brushed past Puerto Rico and churned toward the Atlantic, as experts forecast it may reach North Carolina by midweek and travel northward from there.

If the forecasts are accurate, Earl will likely wreck plans for vacationers this Labor Day weekend, prompting them to desert area beaches.

Earl comes on the heels of Hurricane Danielle, blamed for rough surf and riptides in New York and New Jersey last weekend.

Earl damaged homes, downed trees, blocked roads and snapped power lines in the Caribbean, including the French islands of Saint Martin and Saint Barthelemy, where thousands of people were left without power.

The US National Hurricane Center said tropical conditions would affect portions of Puerto Rico early Tuesday, with stronger winds likely in elevated terrain before the pattern spread to the Turks and Caicos islands.

Earl was churning west-northwest at 13 miles per hour, dumping heavy rains and whipping up massive waves as it continued its arc past the Lesser Antilles, with the eye of the storm centered some 160 miles north-northwest of San Juan.

"We were quite fortunate because there was no direct hit in this case," Puerto Rico Governor Luis Fortuno told CNN. "However, there was -- has been lots of rain and some winds in certain areas... Hopefully, we'll be able to get back to normal during the course of the day and tomorrow will be a regular working day."

He said about 174,000 people lost power and 33,000 were left without water.

On the five-point Saffir-Simpson scale used by the NHC, a Category Four storm carries a warning that "catastrophic damage will occur," with a high risk of structural damage.

Even though it may strengthen in the next day or so, the storm was not projected to make landfall immediately, and earlier hurricane warnings for Puerto Rico and the US and British Virgin Islands were downgraded.

One weather model has Hurricane Earl first skimming the US East Coast as early as Thursday, and possibly reaching as far north as the Canadian province of New Brunswick by Saturday.

The storm could dump up to 12 inches of rain in the Caribbean, especially in higher elevation, the US hurricane center said.

"These rains could cause life-threatening flash floods and mudslides," it warned.

Winds of up to 170 kilometers an hour were registered in Saint Barthelemy, emergency officials in Guadeloupe said.

French Overseas Territories Minister Marie-Luce Penchard told AFP late Monday that no deaths had been recorded in Saint Martin and Saint Barthelemy.

But "the wind is so strong that people still can't go out," Penchard added. She was planning to travel to the two islands on Tuesday to assess the damage, but said a desalination plant had been hit and water supplies had been disrupted.

The northern half of Saint Martin is French territory, with the remainder -- known as Saint Maarten -- belonging to the Netherlands. Saint Barthelemy lies to the southeast.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy hailed "the discipline and courage" of the islands' residents, saying they were being sorely tested by the hurricane.

Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Fiona was moving westward near 23 miles per hour, and centered some 590 miles east of the Leeward Islands. Packing top winds of 40 miles per hour, it was expected to skim the islands late Tuesday or early Wednesday.