As Hurricane Ophelia
neared the Carolinas coast Wednesday morning, things began to get
dicey.
At 5 a.m., the center of Ophelia was about 70 miles southeast of
Myrtle Beach, with sustained winds of 75 mph. It was moving north at
about 4 mph, and the center of the storm is not expected to touch
the S.C. coast.
Hurricane-force winds stretched out about 50 miles from the
center, but the highest recorded winds on land were 50 mph gusts at
Carolina Beach and Wrightsville Beach in North Carolina.
The National Hurricane Center's 5 a.m. advisory noted Ophelia was
becoming better organized, but it's not expected to intensify. The
forecast calls for the center of the system to skirt Cape Fear today
and Cape Hatteras early Thursday.
As for the South Carolina coast, the heaviest rainfall totals,
according to Doppler radar, have been in the North Myrtle Beach
area, which got 1.6 inches on Tuesday and about another inch between
midnight and 6 a.m. today.
High tides at Wrightsville Beach, N.C., ran about 2.5 feet above
normal at 5 a.m., according to the National Weather Service,
indicating a small storm surge.
