Isabel was packing winds of 170 kilometers (105 miles) an hour as it moved out of the Atlantic -- strong enough for the US Navy to order up to 40 vessels, including an aircraft carrier, to take to the sea and steam away from the hurricane.

Immediate predictions were for the storm to hit land around North Carolina early Thursday, then sweep north up the East Coast.

Thousands of area home and store owners from northern South Carolina to Virginia and Maryland rushed to board up their windows and buy emergency food, batteries and first aid kits. Several hardware stores already reported running short of flashlights, batteries and other supplies.

Here in Kitty Hawk, Tuesday was a sunny, cloudless day, though there were already some strong wind gusts.

Todd Liston, 34, was busy screwing sheets of plywood onto the metal frame of the windows of the offices of his seaside pool company.

This hurricane "looks pretty serious, more than usual," said Liston. "We're pretty prepared here, more than further inland."

Liston said that he has boarded up his business for protection from hurricanes several times before, including in 1999 for Hurricane Floyd. "Most people kept their plywood from last time," he said.

Authorities ordered people in Dare county in North Carolina to leave their homes from midday (1600 GMT) Tuesday.

The community on the low lying island chain has about 23,000 permanent residents, and a population that swells to 150,000 in the summer peak season. Many homes are precariously perched on stilts.

But there are few tourists now, said Frank Pierce, a state public safety spokesman.

State Governor Mike Easley urged residents to "stock up on needed supplies such as gasoline and water, and tune to news broadcasts to hear the latest updates from emergency management personnel."

Virginia state, just to the north, declared a state of emergency late Monday so that it could prepare for the storm.

Meanwhile US warships began steaming out of the giant US naval base at Norfolk, Virginia, to get out of Isabela's path.

Up to 40 submarines and warships, including the carrier USS Ronald Reagan, sailed to ride out the hurricane at sea, the US navy said in a statement.

A spokesman for the Atlantic Fleet said the ships were to leave port every 10 to 15 minutes, and F/A-18 and F-14 fighters based at nearby Oceana Naval Station also have been ordered to disperse to other bases beyond the reach of the storm.

At 2:00 pm (1800 GMT) a hurricane watch was in effect from Little River inlet in northern South Carolina, to Chincoteague Island, in north-eastern Virginia, meaning it could hit in about 36 hours, according to the US National Hurrican Center.

Isabel's center was located about 960 kilometers (595 miles) southeast of North Carolina's Cape Hatteras. The hurricane was heading in a northwestern direction at a speed of nearly 11 kilometers (seven miles) per hour, according to the Miami, Florida-based National Hurricane Center.

"While some further weakening is possible," the weather service said in a statement, "conditions could become favorable for restrengthening prior to landfall."

Isabel is currently a Category 2 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale, which goes to five. Over the weekend Isabel was a Category Five, packing winds of up to 260 kilometers (160 miles) per hour.

"The public must continue to take this storm seriously," said Tim Schott, a spokesman for the National Weather Service.

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TERRA.WIRE