The East Coast is bracing for a possible direct hit from Hurricane Maria, days after the storm caused widespread devastation in the Caribbean.
North Carolina may bear the worst of the storm, as current forecasts show Maria brushing its coast Wednesday morning.
Although it’s not currently predicted to make landfall along the coast, Maria is the third hurricane to affect the US in the last month.
“It is likely that some direct impacts will occur along portions of the coast by midweek,” the National Hurricane Center said in an advisory Sunday.
Some of the US coast may be under a tropical storm or hurricane watch later Sunday, the center said. Those on the Carolina and mid-Atlantic coasts are warned to monitor the storm’s progress.
As of 11 a.m. Sunday the storm was roughly 475 miles south-southeast of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina.
“Regardless of the exact forecast track,” the storm is so big that “tropical storm-force winds could reach a portion of the North Carolina coast by mid-week,” the NHC said.
Maria weakened to a Category 2 storm Sunday, with sustained winds of about 105 mph. The NHC said it expected the storm to weaken further by Monday night or Tuesday.
Even so, Maria still packs a dangerous punch.
“Swells generated by Maria are increasing along portions of the southeastern United States coast and Bermuda and will be increasing along the Mid-Atlantic coast later today,” the center said Sunday, warning that such swells can cause “life-threatening surf and rip currents.”
The five-day tracking model shows Maria maintaining hurricane strength through Friday as it makes it way north before turning northeast and heading further out into the Atlantic.
Millions of people in the Caribbean are still reeling from Hurricane Maria’s devastation. At least 10 people were killed in Puerto Rico, where much of the US territory is without power and many are without water.
That’s after the storm destroyed the island of Dominica, killing at least 15 people there. It also hammered the Dominican Republic, the US Virgin Islands and the Turks and Caicos, a British overseas territory.
