Hurricane Noel expected to brush East Coast - CNN.com

Hurricane Noel expected to brush East Coast - CNN.com: "(CNN) -- Hurricane Noel grew in size early Friday as it moved away from the Bahamas and into the Atlantic Ocean, leaving 115 people reportedly dead across the Caribbean. A driver navigates a flooded street Thursday on New Providence Island in the Bahamas. more photos » In its 5 a.m. ET advisory, the National Hurricane Center said Noel's maximum sustained winds were near 80 mph (130 kph), with its center about 675 miles (1,085 kilometers) west-southwest of Bermuda and about 470 miles (755 kilometers) south of North Carolina's Cape Hatteras. The Category 1 hurricane was moving north-northeast at 18 mph (29 kph). Noel's rainfall swamped the Bahamas and Cuba on Thursday, forcing about 24,000 evacuations from low-lying areas of Cuba and dumping 15 inches of rain on the Bahamas, The Associated Press reported. Portions of the U.S. East Coast were in for heavy rainfall, though much less than the deluge in the Bahamas, forecasters said. Although Noel's projected path shows it remaining well off the U.S. coast, forecasters predicted that Noel would dump up about 1 inch of rain across North Carolina's Outer Banks and 2 to 4 inches with isolated maximum totals of 6 inches across eastern New England. "