Sept. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Hurricane Ophelia lingered over North Carolina's Outer Banks barrier islands with sustained winds as high as 85 miles (137 kilometers) per hour, dumping rain and causing storm-surge flooding.

Ophelia was centered 45 miles southwest of Cape Hatteras at 7 a.m. local time, and was ``not in a hurry to move away from the Outer Banks,'' the National Hurricane Center said on its Web site. The hurricane was moving northeast at 6 mph and is forecast to weaken later today. The wall of Ophelia's eye edged along the barrier islands, with the center expected to pass a ``very short distance'' offshore, forecasters said.

``It may not ever make landfall,'' meteorologist Eric Blake said in a telephone interview from the center in Miami. A storm is deemed to have made landfall when the eye passes over land.

President George W. Bush late yesterday declared a state of emergency in North Carolina, ordering federal aid to supplement state and local provisions. Bush is reeling from criticism by lawmakers and officials on the Gulf coast, including New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, that his administration failed to respond quickly enough after Hurricane Katrina last month hit Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, inundating most of New Orleans.

Ophelia was a Category 1 hurricane, the weakest on the five- step Saffir-Simpson scale.

North Carolina Governor Mike Easley said damage from Ophelia, which stalled at sea for about a week, would probably be worse than that caused in the state by Hurricane Isabel in 2003 and Hurricane Alex in 2004 because the storm, forecast to dump as much as 15 inches (38 centimeters) of rain, was moving slowly.

Slow-Moving Storm

``The slow-moving nature of this storm may increase its impact along our coast,'' Easley said yesterday in a statement.

Storm-surge and river flooding has already taken place in North Carolina, the National Weather Service said in advisories on its Web site. The level in at least one waterway had risen to 7 feet (2 meters) above normal and was still rising, with levels in some areas expected to reach 10 feet, the center said.

A hurricane warning, meaning such conditions are expected within 24 hours, was in effect from Surf City, North Carolina, to the state's border with Virginia. About 2.4 million people live along the coast in the two states. A tropical-storm warning was in place from the Virginia border to Cape Charles Light.

Easley and Virginia Governor Mark Warner have declared states of emergency to free up resources. Easley ordered mandatory evacuations of low-lying, flood-prone areas in six counties and voluntary evacuations in nine others.

Power Failures

The storm caused power failures affecting 78,000 customers, Tom Mather, a spokesman for the North Carolina Emergency Operations Center, said yesterday.

``We expect that to increase quite a bit,'' he said. The center received ``a number of requests'' for flood rescue teams from coastal Brunswick County.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has 32 people working in the state and more on their way, Mather said. He didn't know how many more FEMA workers were expected. About 315 National Guard members have been deployed, and 50 more are expected, Mather said.

Fifty-one shelters were housing about 1,732 people in North Carolina, Mather said. In South Carolina, Governor Mark Sanford's office said shelters were open in the coastal counties of Charleston, Horry and Georgetown.

Virginia has 100 National Guard members and flood rescue teams of the state police on alert, said Bob Spieldenner, a spokesman for the state's Emergency Management Department.

``FEMA has some supplies on hand just outside the area -- trucks full of water, ice and meals,'' Spieldenner said.

Water Rises

In North Carolina, the level of the Neuse River is expected to continue rising until mid-morning local time, the weather service said in a 5:40 a.m. advisory, after earlier saying one creek had risen 7 feet. A storm surge as high as 10 feet is expected in the town of in Carteret County, while in the town of Oriental, it may be 8 feet and in the Outer Banks 7 feet, accompanied by battering waves, according to the advisory.

Ophelia is the 15th named storm of the June 1-Nov. 30 Atlantic hurricane season. It began as a tropical depression on Sept. 6, strengthening a day later to a tropical storm. It first became a hurricane on Sept. 8, then weakened into a storm and strengthened again to a hurricane three times.

To contact the reporter on this story: Alex Morales in London at amorales2@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: September 15, 2005 08:47 EDT