THE EYE of Hurricane Bertha moved ashore in North Carolina yesterday, blasting deserted coastal cities and towns with 100 m.p.h. (160 k.p.h.) winds that ripped the root's off buildings and toppled an amusement park ferris wheel.
Bertha's gales uprooted trees, knocked over signs and shredded power lines, leaving thousands of people in North and South Carolina without electricity.
Powerful winds of up to 115 m.p.h. (185 k.p.h.) near Wilmington ripped part of a former US navy destroyer loose from its mooring in the Cape Fear River, setting it dangerously adrift, officials said.
Bertha intensified as it moved over the warm waters of the Gulf Stream close to shore. Sustained winds climbed from 80 m.p.h. (128 k.p.h.) late on Thursday to 105 m.p.h. (170 k.p.h.) as it bore down on a Carolina coastline evacuated by tens of thousands of residents and vacationers who fled to higher ground.
Forecasters warned residents along a wide swath of the US eastern seaboard to prepare for torrential rains and flood tides seven to nine feet (two to three metres) above normal.
"This is a fairly potent storm," said the National Hurricane Centre director, Mr Bob Burpee.
The storm claimed at least six lives during its trek this week through the US Virgin Islands, the Leeward Islands and Puerto Rico. A four year old boy died on Thursday when an F-16 military jet being moved to Eglin Air Force Base for safety from the storm crashed into a house in Pensacola, Florida.
Other deaths blamed on the storm included two Puerto Rican men who died when they lost control of their car on rain slicked roads, and another who drowned while surfing. On the French half of the Dutch French island of St. Martin police said one person was electrocuted and another was believed dead after she fell off a boat.