Hurricane Ophelia pounds North Carolina coast

RALEIGH - Hurricane Ophelia pelted the North Carolina coast today with heavy rain and gusting wind in a slow-moving assault that was expected to last for two days and trigger widespread flooding.

Ophelia's centre was 64km southeast of Wilmington, North Carolina, at 2pm (8am NZ time). The core of the storm brushed the state's southeastern coast on Wednesday and was expected to hit the Outer Banks, the chain of islands along its northern coast, later.

Schools, seaports, ferries and businesses were closed and scores of shelters opened along the North Carolina coast. Some 50,000 customers had lost electricity.

Squalls pounded the coastline and kicked up battering waves that gnawed at beaches and washed over roads as Ophelia crept slowly along at about 11km/h.

Ophelia had top sustained winds of 136k/mh and could strengthen slightly, the forecasters said. Storms of Ophelia's magnitude can flood coastal areas and fell trees and power lines but rarely cause structural damage.

It was 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.

North Carolina Governoe Mike Easley warned that the longer Ophelia was over the state, the more rain would fall and the more seawater would pile up and crash ashore as storm surge.

Forecasters at the US National Hurricane Centre said Ophelia could dump up to 380mm of rain on parts of North Carolina and send a 3m storm surge over the coast and up into the rivers.

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.

Easley urged people to heed the evacuation orders where they could still travel safely, especially if they lived in areas flooded by faster-moving storms in previous years.

Easley said: "Once the high winds come, we cannot get in and get you out -- cannot get you by boat, cannot get you by helicopters, cannot get there by plane."

A hurricane warning was in effect from the Myrtle Beach area in South Carolina along the entire North Carolina coast to the Virginia border, alerting residents to expect hurricane conditions within 24 hours. More than 700,000 people lived in the warning area, the US Census Bureau said.

Dr. Flint King closed his veterinary office on Oak Island off North Carolina's southern coast but did not evacuate.

"I don't think many people evacuated at all. But there is nobody on the streets," King said.

- REUTERS