UPDATE: Earl threatens broad swath of East Coast

The National Weather Service has issued a tropical-storm warning for Virginia’s coast in advance of Hurricane Earl.  A hurricane watch already was in effect.

The combination means there is a good chance of tropical-storm-force winds — sustained winds of at least 39 mph — and a small chance of a hurricane, which produces winds of at least 74 mph, on the coast.  

The storm is expected to have little, if any, impact on Richmond.

A hurricane warning extends along the North Carolina coast and a watch is in effect all the way through Massachusetts.

Tourist evacuations started on Ocracoke and Hatteras islands on the fragile Outer Banks of North Carolina, and Gov. Bob McDonnell declared a state of emergency as a precaution in Virginia, where officials hoped the storm stayed on track to pass well east offshore.

Earl remained more than 680 miles south-southeast of Cape Hatteras, with top sustained winds of 125 mph. Forecasters said Earl is strengthening and could become a Category 4 storm with winds of 131 mph or greater.

It was on a course to approach the North Carolina shore late Thursday or early Friday and then blow north along the coast, with forecasters cautioning that it was still too early to tell how close Earl may come to land. The National Weather Service watch area extended to Delaware.

McDonnell's emergency declaration allowed the National Guard to mobilize. A commander said 200 troops were put on standby to help with high-water transportation and debris removal in Hampton Roads if needed.

"We are staging personnel, vehicles and equipment in Hampton and Norfolk to support missions such as high-water transport and light debris removal," Col. Jeff Hice, joint operations officer for the Virginia Guard, said in a news release.

During hazardous weather the Guard is assigned storm tasks through the state Department of Emergency Management.

McDonnell said the emergency declaration had to be made "so that additional resources are available and positioned for use as necessary."

"A change in the storm’s path could bring hazardous weather conditions to eastern Virginia," McDonnell said in a news release. "This declaration is a precautionary move which will allow state agencies to be ready just in case resources are needed.”

Not since Hurricane Bob in 1991 has such a powerful storm had such a large swath of the East Coast in its sights, said Dennis Feltgen, spokesman for the National Hurricane Center.

"A slight shift of that track to the west is going to impact a great deal of real estate with potential hurricane-force winds," Feltgen said.

Earl's effect on the East Coast will depend on when it makes its expected turn to the northeast.

A later-than-expected turn could mean the storm's eye makes landfall on the extreme eastern tip of North Carolina as a Category 3 storm late Thursday or early Friday. If that happens, hurricane-force winds also could reach New York's Long Island and Cape Cod in Massachusetts. Even if it doesn't, dangerous rip currents likely to be felt from the Carolinas north.

The storm forced the U.S. Navy to alter its plans, hustling to get the USS Cole back in port in Norfolk before the bad weather arrived. The destroyer wasn't supposed to come home from a seven-month deployment until later this week.

In Virginia Beach, where more than 20,000 long-distance runners, their families and friends are due to arrive this weekend for the Dodge Rock 'n' Roll Virginia Beach Half Marathon, organizers were keeping a close eye on the weather, but few participants had backed out.

"This is definitely on our radar, but at this time it looks like Sunday's half-marathon will take place as scheduled," said Dan Cruz.

On the Outer Banks, vacationers' cars, some with campers in tow, lined up for the first ferries of the day from Ocracoke to the mainland. Another car ferry connects to Hatteras, which has a bridge to the mainland and came under the second evacuation order a little later Wednesday morning.

The evacuation orders are called mandatory, but Julia Jarema, spokeswoman for the state Division of Emergency Management, said it doesn't mean people will be forced from their homes. Local law enforcement officials may go door-to-door and ask those who stayed behind for information about their next of kin.

Emergency officials said they hoped Ocracoke's approximately 800 year-round residents would heed the call to leave. But Carol Pahl said she and husband Tom would stay put if the current forecasts hold. Only a direct hit from a stronger storm would drive them from the island where they've lived for seven years, running an antiques store.

"There's never been a death on Ocracoke from a hurricane, so we feel pretty comfortable," Carol Pahl said as tourists departed on ferries and her husband, also a construction contractor, worked to board up the windows of clients' and friends' homes. "Everything here is made pretty much with hurricanes in mind."

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Times-Dispatch Staff Writer Tom Kapsidelis contributed to this report along with Associated Press Writers Martha Waggoner and Emery Dalesio in Raleigh; Jack Jones in Columbia, S.C.; Suzette Laboy in Miami; and Bob Lewis in Bristol, Va.