Southeast Keeps a Wary Eye on Ophelia

A hurricane watch was posted Saturday for the Southeast coast as Ophelia strengthened, and meteorologists said its meandering course could take a sharp turn toward land.

The watch covers a 300-mile stretch from the Georgia-South Carolina line to North Carolina’s Cape Lookout, meaning hurricane-force winds of at least 74 mph were possible by tonight, the National Hurricane Center said.

North Carolina’s governor declared a state of emergency as the storm’s track shifted northward with a forecast landfall Tuesday on the North Carolina coast. But the storm wasn’t close enough to the state that a decision had to be made on whether to order evacuations, said Eddie King, Pender County emergency management director.

South Carolina officials said they would decide soon whether to order evacuations.

The storm is “moving really slow, so we have to hang with it. But there is some expectation it will move toward the coast,” said Joe Farmer, a spokesman for the South Carolina Emergency Management Division.

The crew of an Air Force hurricane hunter airplane flying through Ophelia measured top sustained winds of 80 mph. It could strengthen before an expected Tuesday landfall, said Eric Blake, a meteorologist at the hurricane center in Miami.

“Almost every [computer] model indicates a United States landfall,” he said. “It’s time to make those preparations.”

At 8 p.m. PDT Saturday, Ophelia was 255 miles east-southeast of Charleston, S.C., and about 235 miles south of Cape Hatteras, N.C. The storm was nearly stationary, but forecasters predicted that it would head to the northwest, toward the coast, late today or Monday.

Ophelia already was contributing to rough surf along the coast.

If Ophelia makes landfall in South Carolina, it would be the third hurricane in 13 months to strike the state. Hurricanes Charley and Gaston hit the South Carolina coast last season in the same general area.