Arthur, the first named storm of the Atlantic season, prompted a hurricane warning for much of the North Carolina coast. ET, Arthur was churning deep into the Atlantic Ocean about 75 miles east-southeast of the Cape Cod town of Chatham, according to the National Hurricane Center 
 
 It is still technically a hurricane, with sustained winds of 75 mph, and Nantucket and Cape Cod face tropical storm warnings. Little change was expected in the storm's strength Thursday night and Friday, though Arthur was expected to weaken as it travels northward and slings rain along the East Coast. The center of Arthur is forecast to pass over or near western Nova Scotia early Saturday. Residents along the coast of North Carolina are bracing for the arrival of the Hurricane... (Associated Press) 
 
 This is the Weather Underground U.S. national forecast for Friday, July 4, 2014, Hurricane Arthur will be off the coast of North Carolina, producing showers and thunderstorms from the Mid-Atlantic to... (Associated Press) 
 
 Eddie Skakle and his wife Gail secure kayaks at their kayak rental business, A. S. Austin Co., in Hatteras Village, N.C., on Thursday, July 3, 2014. Residents along the coast of North Carolina are bracing for the... (Associated Press) 
 
 Arthur strengthened to a Category 2 hurricane Thursday night, its winds strengthening to 100 mph before it made landfall near the southern end of the Outer Banks. Hide Caption 1 of 13 Photos: Photos: Hurricane Arthur hits East Coast Hurricane Arthur hits East Coast – Water from Hurricane Arthur buckled a section of North Carolina Highway 12 on Hatteras Island, seen July 4 in a photo provided by the North Carolina Department of Transportation. It is the same spot on Hatteras Island that was breached in Hurricane Irene in 2011. Hide Caption 3 of 13 Photos: Photos: Hurricane Arthur hits East Coast Hurricane Arthur hits East Coast – Power company trucks travel along Highway 64 after flooding caused by Hurricane Arthur on July 4 in Nags Head, North Carolina. Arthur reached land late Thursday between Cape Lookout and Beaufort, North Carolina, near the southern end of the Outer Banks, a 200-mile string of narrow barrier islands with about 57,000 permanent residents.  KILL DEVIL HILLS, N.C. (AP) — A strengthening Hurricane Arthur forced thousands of vacationers on the North Carolina coast to abandon their Independence Day plans while cities farther up the East Coast rescheduled fireworks displays threatened by rain from the storm. The Miami-based hurricane center noted that the storm was speeding along to the northeast -- meaning it is heading farther out to sea -- at a 31 mph clip. State Police did not have an estimate on the crowd late Thursday night, which was in the tens of thousands. "Our cottage was right on the sound and we didn't want that back-current surge coming in and flooding us out," said Donald Unmussig, 50. Around 9:30 a.m. Friday, Gov. Pat McCrory sought to strike a balance between a stern warning to vacationers and optimism that part of the busy weekend could be salvaged. "Of course, this holiday weekend, the July 4th weekend, is one of the biggest weekends for coastal tourism in the state, and we anticipate a beautiful weekend after ... Hurricane Arthur is out of North Carolina," he said. The Outer Banks forecast called for sunny skies and high temperatures in the 80s. "We were just saying we were really, really lucky this year that the weather was so great, and then this," Specht said as she ended a two-week vacation. If you live in that neighborhood, "it's undeniable, you're going to get flooded" during a storm like this, Lines said. He thought of canceling the trip as the storm brewed but decided against it.
– Maybe they should have called it Hurricane Benedict Arnold: Independence Day plans in North Carolina and elsewhere on the East Coast are in disarray thanks to Hurricane Arthur—though as CNN reports, the state "seems to have dodged a bullet." Arthur strengthened to a Category 2 hurricane yesterday, making landfall at 11:15pm EST with 100mph winds—if it had been a little later, it would have been the first hurricane ever to make landfall on July 4. But it didn't stay long. North Carolina officials reported few issues this morning, as the National Weather Service declared Arthur had moved off land and over the Atlantic by sun-up, tracking a path over the water that runs parallel to New England's coast. At its most severe point, some 21,000 North Carolina customers were without power. Fireworks shows in New Jersey, Maine, and New Hampshire have been delayed until later in the weekend because of the storm, while Boston held its annual Boston Pops Fourth of July concert and fireworks show a day early, the AP reports. Heavy rains and lightning, however, forced organizers to end the fireworks early, and skip the performance of Tchaikovsky's "1812 Overture," one of the most cherished parts of the annual show. "They took away the best part of the whole concert," one attendee complains to the Boston Globe.