Hurricane Ophelia hovers off the coast of the southeastern United States today and could hit North Carolina later in the week, forecasters said.
The National Hurricane Centre in Miami is cautioning that Ophelia's path is unusually difficult to project because the storm is not moving.
North Carolina Governor Mike Easley declared a state of emergency yesterday and local officials issued a mandatory evacuation order for non-residents on the low-lying vacation island of Ocracoke on North Carolina's Outer Banks.
A hurricane watch was in effect from Edisto Beach, South Carolina, north to Cape Lookout, North Carolina, cautioning millions of residents that fierce winds and other hurricane conditions were possible within 36 hours.
At 8 am locally, (1 pm), the storm's centre was 255 miles south of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. Ophelia had registered top sustained winds of 85 mph but they are not expected to strengthen much the next two days.
Forecasters expect the hurricane to eventually move north and hit North Carolina on Wednesday or Thursday.
Ophelia is a Category 1 hurricane on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale, meaning it could be accompanied by a 4- to 5-foot storm surge. Such storms can flood coastal roads and damage piers, trees and unanchored mobile homes but rarely cause structural damage.
Hurricane Katrina was a far more powerful Category 4 storm when it hit the US Gulf coast before devastating much of Louisiana and Mississippi.
More than 3,000 tourists and 800 residents were on Ocracoke Island, which is reachable only by boat or plane, according to Hyde County Emergency Management Coordinator Tony Spencer.
"The evacuation is going orderly, but a lot of folks don't understand the logistics of needing to evacuate early," Mr Spencer said.