CAROLINA, P.R. — Hurricane Earl passed through the northern Caribbean early on Tuesday after strengthening to Category Four status and veered onto a path toward the East Coast of the United States.
Earl was just north of Puerto Rico at 5 a.m. EDT and its maximum sustained winds were at 135 miles an hour, the National Hurricane Center reported on its Web site. It was traveling in a west-northwest direction at 14 miles an hour, the center said.
The center warned residents along the Eastern seaboard of the United States to closely follow the storm.
On Monday, the hurricane barreled through the northern Caribbean, damaging homes and sending hundreds of people fleeing to emergency shelters.
The hurricane hit the smallest of the Leeward Islands — Antigua, Barbuda, St. Maarten and St. Martin — on Sunday, before veering toward the British Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico and the mainland United States