Surfers to revel in huge waves as Earl passes by

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North Carolina prepares for Earl

North Carolina prepares for Earl

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Hurricane Earl Kicks Up Surf on Folly Beach

Hurricane Earl in the Atlantic Ocean started to stir up the surf at Folly Beach.

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Hurricane Earl

Powerful Hurricane Earl spun toward the East Coast on Wednesday. The storm's center passed just north of the British Virgin Islands on Monday afternoon. Evacuation orders were issued Wednesday for parts of the Outer Banks in North Carolina.

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FOLLY BEACH -- Overhead, at least, and clean. That's the waves surfers expect to see today as they crowd the Washout.

"A lot of people out there," said Jordan Reeves, who spent all Wednesday morning surfing, then took over the Ocean Surf Shop so the manager could get in some sets.

Hurricane Earl is expected to roar past the Lowcountry well out to sea today, packing a 125 mph punch of winds. The winds are pushing up 30-foot swells that were expected to be slamming onto the beach 6 to 9 feet high, according to a meteorologist at the National Weather Service, Charleston.

The storm had winds of 140 mph Wednesday night still slipping along a course that will take it near or over North Carolina's Outer Banks late tonight and early Friday, as a Category 3 storm. The governors of North Carolina, Virginia and Maryland declared states of emergency to expedite government assistance.

President Barack Obama said late Wednesday an emergency exists in North Carolina and has ordered federal agencies to help state and local officials handle any problems caused by the storm.

Earl was expected to pass within 300 miles of the Charleston beaches about noon today. Behind that storm, Tropical Storm Fiona will pass on Friday farther out to sea. And off in the Atlantic, Gaston reached tropical-storm strength as it tracked toward the Greater Antilles and Puerto Rico; computer models forecast it, too, will become a hurricane.

Breakers kicked up by Earl are expected to smack the shoreline and erode some spots, but not do too much damage. High tide is shortly before 3 p.m. but wouldn't be a significant astronomical tide without the hurricane swells, said meteorologist Julie Packett, National Weather Service, Charleston. It's possible the high surf will overrun the beach into the dunes, but the city of Folly Beach didn't anticipate it would, Public Safety Director Terry Boatwright said on Wednesday.

There's more concern for the fate of some 1,500 sea turtle nests not yet hatched along the coast. If the nests are overwashed, the hatchlings are lost.

"High concern," said Sarah Dawsey, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist, about the Cape Romain National Seashore islands where nearly half the state's nests were laid this summer. The remote, low-slung barrier islands don't have the dune structure that the Lowcountry's more developed and renourished beaches have.

"With these large swells it's going to eat up a lot of beach, I'm afraid," she said.

Island Turtle Watch members were particularly worried about one of eight nests yet to hatch on Isle of Palms and Sullivan's Island, said Mary Pringle, of the volunteer monitor group. She planned to keep a close watch on that one Wednesday and today. But overall, nearly half the state's nests have been moved into higher dunes by volunteer groups. The Island volunteers are one of those hands-on groups.

"Most (nests) are high enough that they shouldn't be affected, unless the dunes erode. If the dunes stay there, we'll be fine," Pringle said. Each spawning turtle lays a number of nests up and down the coast, she said. Biologists believe that is partly to enhance the survival rate of at least some hatchlings if a storm hits any one beach.

"We're just letting nature take its course, and hoping for the best," she said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.