Hurricane Bonnie roared ashore at Cape Fear in North Carolina with winds of more than 100 m.p.h. as coastline homes were hurriedly evacuated. Curfews have been ordered in severely hit areas like Wilmington.
About 500,000 residents and holiday-makers obeyed police orders to evacuate the vulnerable Outer Banks and parts of South Carolina, but several hundred others refused to leave and have been cut off from the mainland. In an attempt to frighten them, the police asked them for the names of their next-of-kin.
Hundreds of refugees from the hurricane occupied shelters in schools and halls inland. As the evacuation caused long queues of cars on bridges and roads in the past 24 hours, Bonnie's swirling progress towards the coast speeded up.
Forecasters issued a hurricane warning for the coastline stretching several hundred miles from South Carolina to Delaware in the north.
Bonnie was advancing along an unusually wide front of 400 miles, making it difficult for the experts to predict the areas likely to be most affected. The winds at the centre reached 115 m.p.h., and in the more extensive outer area the tropical storm-force winds of up to 70 m.p.h. were capable to doing much damage to the coastal regions.
Some 40 warships were ordered to leave the Norfolk, Virginia, and other US Navy bases to ride out the storm at sea. Air Force planes were also moved from vulnerable areas further inland.
It was hoped that the hurricane, estimated to be the size of Texas, would veer north-east after hitting the North Carolina coast and head back to sea, but forecasters warned that the strong winds and rain could linger for up to 18 hours. The accompanying high tides were expected to flood homes on the seafront and cause havoc inland if the storm surge backed up local rivers and they burst their banks.
Wilmington was the first large town to bear the brunt of Bonnie by midday yesterday. Electrical power to about 80,000 homes was cut off as the winds bent trees over and uprooted smaller ones.
Residents still have vivid memories of Hurricane Fran, which tore into the town two years ago and continued on to the middle of North Carolina, causing 24 deaths and more than $5 billion in damage.
Forecasters were also tracking the progress of a second hurricane, code-named Danielle, which was strengthening over the Atlantic, with 105 m.p.h. winds.
The effects of Bonnie are being felt as far north as Nantucket Island, off Massachusetts, where swimming has been forbidden because of the dangerous currents and rip-tides. Five drownings have been blamed on the dangerous swell.
Flights to Ireland were not being affected by Hurricane Bonnie, a spokeswoman for Delta Airlines said in Atlanta last night. Some flights to North and South Carolina had been cancelled, she added. Delta operates daily flights from Atlanta to Shannon and Dublin.