Hurricane Ophelia's outer squalls pelted the North Carolina coast with heavy rain and gusty wind on Wednesday and forecasters said the storm was moving so slowly its assault could last for two days.
Ophelia's center was 40 miles (64 km) south-south-east of Wilmington, North Carolina, at 11 am (1500 GMT). The storm was expected to brush the state's south-eastern coast on Wednesday then hit the Outer Banks, the chain of islands along its northern coast, on Thursday.
Schools, seaports, ferries, businesses and bridges were closed and shelters opened all along the North Carolina coast.
Squalls pounded the coastline and the storm kicked up high waves that chewed away at beaches as Ophelia crept along slowly on Wednesday.
The National Hurricane Center in Miami warned that Ophelia's pace could result in "an excruciatingly long passage of the hurricane along the North Carolina coast over the next couple of days."
Ophelia had top sustained winds of 80 mph (128 kph) and could strengthen slightly, the forecasters said. Storms of Ophelia's magnitude can flood coastal areas, wash out seafront roads and fell trees and power lines but rarely cause structural damage.
Evacuees streamed off North Carolina's barrier islands on Tuesday, heading inland before the buffeting winds forced authorities to close the high-rise bridges to the mainland.
Mandatory evacuation was ordered for islands, beach towns and flood-prone areas in parts of six coastal North Carolina counties and voluntary evacuation was urged for parts of nine others.
Ophelia had sat nearly stationary off the coast for days, making it difficult to predict where it would go when it did move. "We didn't know whether to call for a voluntary evacuation or a mandatory so we called for a voluntary," said Mayor Betty Medlin of Kure Beach, south of Wilmington. "The way it's getting here today we probably should have had a mandatory."
Most of the town's 2,500 residents stayed put and the town hall was powered by generators after electrical power went out. Tides were 8 feet (2.4 metres) above normal and winds gusts were already near hurricane force.
"It's just sitting there, which makes the wind beat us and be on us longer," Medlin said.
Dr Flint King closed his veterinary office on Oak Island on the southern coast of North Carolina but didn't evacuate. A veteran of many hurricanes, he said gales gusted over the beach and snapped a few tree limbs and several inches of rain had fallen.
Ophelia could dump up to 10 inches (25 cm) of rain on parts of the Carolinas and send an 8-foot (2.5-metre) storm surge crashing ashore. Ophelia is the first hurricane to hit the United States since the much more powerful Katrina killed hundreds in the US Gulf Coast and displaced 1 million people two weeks ago.
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