The first hurricane of the Atlantic season made landfall on the North Carolina coast Thursday night, forcing thousands of vacationers to scrap their holiday plans amid evacuation orders.
Hurricane Arthur crossed the coast near Cape Lookout at the southern end of North Carolina's Outer Banks at 11:15pm EDT (0315 GMT), Reuters reported.
Arthur is the first hurricane to hit the United States since Superstorm Sandy devastated New York and New Jersey in October 2012 and caused $70 billion in estimated damage.
After scything through the Outer Banks, Arthur is expected to move toward the northeast over cooler water on Friday, diminishing in strength and posing little risk to the northeastern United States, forecasters said.
Tropical storm warnings were issued on Thursday for Cape Cod and Nantucket, as well as parts of eastern Canada, including New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and the islands of Cape Breton and Prince Edward.
The storm disrupted plans for holiday beachgoers and others ordered off North Carolina's low-lying barrier islands in its path.
Tourists and some residents packed ferries and crowded the only highway off Ocracoke and Hatteras islands, where voluntary and mandatory evacuations were in effect.