heading out of their neck of the woods and the weather should be improving in the outer banks through friday. just as things improve in the outer banks, worsening in the new england area. waves already pounding the new england coastline and we expect the waves to increase along cape cod as well. cape cod could be facing stronger winds as hurricane earl may track even closer to it. they could see gusts as high as hurricane storm force as we head through. the worst of the weather into friday night. now back to you, mike and rob. >> ava dinges, thank you so much. stay with abc news throughout the morning and throughout the day for live reports on hurricane earl. coming up later this half hour, "american landscape" coverage from north carolina. earl of course is the big story but now let's turn to the rest of the forecast around the country. thunderstorms and heavy rain from the great lakes into the ohio, tennessee, and mississi valleys. wet in louisiana and east texas. showers for the southern tier of