Arthur, the first hurricane of the Atlantic season, struck land at the southern end of North Carolina’s Outer Banks at 11:15 p.m. on Thursday (0315 GMT Friday). It rattled vacation homes, flooded roads and cut off island communities from the mainland.
Top sustained winds of 100 miles per hour (160 kph) earned Arthur a Category 2 status on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale. It weakened to a Category 1 as it moved northeast into the Atlantic Ocean with 90-mile per hour (145-kph) top sustained winds.
“This has been a very good day. There have been no casualties or serious injuries reported,” North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory said at a news conference in Raleigh.
He said there was minimal damage on the North Carolina coast. About 44,000 people were without power, with outages reported on Ocracoke Island and the Morehead City area.