1 100-mile-per-hour winds slashing the coastline of central north carolina. 20,000 homes and businesses left in the dark. by dawn arthur churned up the coast pounding the northern edge of the outer banks. the state s barrier islands are as fragile as they are vulnerable. we are covering all the angles. we have team coverage you can see. we ve got meteorologist indra petersons in kill devil hills, north carolina, karen maginnis is standing by in cnn s weather center tracking its path and alina machado is there after the storm in wrightsville beach, north carolina. we begin with indra. reporter: breaking news from the latest hurricane update arthur weakened to a category 1 hurricane, sustained winds at 90 miles per hour. remember at a point we were talking about winds over 100 miles per hour which did make it a category 2 hurricane, it would have made landfall this morning. remember arthur, this is the biggest or strongest hurricane we ve seen make landfall on the mainland of the u.s.