Hurricane Earl to make landfall tonight

North Carolina, Virginia and Maryland have all declared states of emergency as the huge storm approaches.

With maximum sustained winds of 230 km/h, Hurricane Earl is still categorized as a powerful Category 4 hurricane hours before it’s expected to reach the islands off the coast of North Carolina. Some residents there, no strangers to inclement weather, were vowing to ride out the storm on their beachfront houses rather than heed government warnings to evacuate to the mainland. Earl is expected to weaken as it nears Canada, but officials say there is an 85 per cent chance that it will still be strong enough to be categorized as a hurricane by the time it enters Canadian waters. There is a 40 to 50 per cent chance Earl will hit Nova Scotia.