i m going to be here where i m sitting here. reporter: no one knows exactly how close earl will come, but chatham officials say they are watching it closely. we will watch how fast the storm is moving, we may have to in some of the low-lying areas around town be encourage people to leave their homes. reporter: some vacationers are cutting their stay short. we ll probably leave friday morning. reporter: because? we don t want to get stuck here. reporter: cape fisherman say they plan to stay out of the way. we will get some effects from it, so we don t take chances. when a hurricane like earl is near, you really don t want to risk getting in the water. rip currents a deadly threat. rob marciano is in virginia beach. reporter: tony, another beautiful day here along virginia beach, virginia. the waters behind me look beautiful and deceptively calm. the problem is they have had
information i could share, but better to get over here. you ve got a lot to show us. this a very dangerous storm. it is. i need to get as close as i can so i can see it. have your finger on the pulse of what s going on here. i want to give folks who haven t been paying attention the latest stats on earl so everybody knows where it is at and what it s doing. 125 maximum sustained winds. that s a category 3 storm, a major hurricane. this is the bahamas. they are so lucky that this is as bad as it s going to get for them for the most part and pulling on away. there are a whole bunch of buoys out there. look at one of the buoys very near where earl is right now and it gives us these readings. you don t have to look at all of the lines but i want to point out a couple of things. the red line you see there, that s the wind speed. look at how the wind speed goes
holding steady and we do expect a major hurricane to be very near the outer banks of enernor carolina. hurricane warnings have been issued for east coast of the u.s. from north carolina northeast ward to the north carolina/virginia border. the hurricane watch has been adjusted northward and extends from the state line there up to delaware. you can see that there. and we also have tropical storm warnings that have been issued from cape fear westward. that s including a much greater area here, warning people they need to be prepared for the storm. if you are in the warning area now, you need to rush everything you need to do before the hurricane arrives. rush to completion. make sure you have the three-supplies of food and water as well as batteries. your noaa weather radio because you could lose power.
up, peaking at 85 knots or so, 100-mile-per-hour winds it recorded and notice how it dropped. the other thing, this green line, this is the pressure. look at how that pressure just bottoms way down. that s how we know where that hurricane is and what it s doing and what some of that structure is. interesting information just coming in there. here are the watches and warnings. we re able to get that on a graphic to help you under who is under a warning and a watch. a warning means hurricane conditions can be expected in 36 hours or less. we re expecting the worst of the weather to hit the north carolina coast thursday night into friday morning. it will be overnight when you are sleeping, so think about where you are sleeping and your plans and prepared to have food and water for a couple of days and no power potentially as well. you could see the hurricane force conditions coming in with winds over 75 miles per hour. whether or not it will make
north carolina shoreline. president obama is keeping a close watch on what s happening. he spoke by phone with the fema chief. earl is expected to sweep up the east coast, stirring up dangerous waves. here s reporter mark wagner with our affiliate whdh on the massachusetts coast. reporter: harry hansen pulling his boat out of the water after the chatham boat master warned about hurricane earl is making its way up. i was here during hurricane bob, and it took every boat off the mooring and through it up on the beach. we have a saying down here, when it doubt, haul it out. reporter: big surf and rib currents at this beach, vacationers here waiting to see what earl brings. what are you going to do when the hurricane come swrs. play scrabble, monopoly and stay home and enjoy it.