reporter: the one road off the island was a slow-moving mess. they won t let us stay. they re going to make us sit in this traffic. reporter: the storm is fearsome and still forecast to skirt the eastern coastline. but state officials worry it could change its mind. there have been times people have sworn to us it s not going to touch us and within three hours it s right on top of us. reporter: fema is already shipping bottled water, generators and 300,000 meals to north carolina and massachusetts. we could see watches and warnings continue to move up the east coast. that s why it s so important for residents to have an evacuation plan ready to go if the evacuation order were called for. reporter: fema says residents from north carolina to maine should look out for storm surge. a moving wall of water that could do terrible things to low-lying areas highlighted here in blue. this is cape cod, in the path of earl, and home to 500,000 summer residents. officials are very wor
within 60 to 90 miles of the outer banks early friday morning. forecasters fear even a slight deviation could be devastating. there have been times when people have sworn to us that it s not going to touch us, and within three hours it s right on top of us. reporter: north carolina, virginia, and maryland are all under states of emergency. fema is already shipping bottled water, generators and 300,000 meals to north carolina and massachusetts. cape cod is also in the path of earl and home to 500,000 summer residents. we could see watches and warnings continue to move up the east coast. that s why it s so important for residents to have evacuation plans ready to go if the evacuation orders are called for. reporter: the last time a hurricane posed such a threat to the east coast was in 1991, when hurricane bob caused an estimated $620 million in damage.