Forecasters said it remains unclear how much of the U.S. East Coast Earl, the second major hurricane of the 2010 Atlantic season, could affect later in the week.
"Interest in the Carolinas north to New England should monitor the progress of Earl," said National Hurricane Center in Miami in its 5 am (0900 GMT) advisory.
Earl was a strong Category 4 storm with maximum sustained winds of 135 mph (215 kph) and was 290 miles (470 kilometers) east-southeast of Grand Turk Island. It was moving west-northwest on a curve track the hurricane center said it could take it near Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, on Thursday and Friday.
The center of the storm was moving further away from the U.S. island territory Puerto Rico and is forecast to cross the open Atlantic east of the Turks and Caicos Island on Tuesday.
In its current path, Earl did not pose a threat to the Gulf of Mexico, home to U.S. oil majors and gas installations.
A direct blow to the U.S. East Coast can not be excluded, and Earl will bring heavy rain, and navigating perilous seas and gusty winds to the Atlantic coast of North Carolina to New England and Canada, said Alex Sosnowski, senior meteorologist for private forecaster AccuWeather.
If Earl swings farther west than expected, heavy rains could sweep the corridor 95, North Carolina to Washington, Philadelphia and New York, said.
Hovensa LLC said operations were normal at its refinery by 500,000 barrels per day on the island of St. Croix, but the port of the refinery and all other ports in the U.S. Virgin Islands had been closed because of Earl.
Earlier, the storm lashed the northern Leeward Islands in the Caribbean with strong winds, torrential rains and waves in its wake.
The world's three largest cruise lines - Carnival Corp, Royal Caribbean and Norwegian Cruise Line - changed their itineraries in the Caribbean and the change of itinerary at least seven ships to avoid the storm.
Residents on the island of St. Martin / St. Martin, the two halves administered respectively by France and the Netherlands, said the approval of Earl's caused power outages and downed trees.
"Now the wind is actually incredibly strong ... I've seen a lot of damage to trees ... assume ceilings course, I'm watching mine carefully," said Steve Wright, general manager of the Grand Case Beach Club in Grand Case, St. Martin, told Reuters.
There were no immediate reports of casualties.
In Antigua, some flooding in low lying areas was reported. After the hurricane passed, Antigua and Barbuda declared a national holiday for residents of the twin-island state for cleaning.
The ports of the U.S. Virgin Islands ports and Puerto Rico's Vieques, Culebra, Fajardo and San Juan were closed, the U.S. Coast Guard said. Government offices and schools in eastern Puerto Rico were closed.
The hurricane center said Tropical Storm Fiona was 590 miles (950 kilometers) east of the Leeward Islands. It had maximum winds of 40 mph (65 kph) and was moving west-northwest at 23 mph (37 kph) on a course that was expected to take to the northeast of the Leeward Islands on Wednesday. None of the models forecast Fiona in the Gulf of Mexico.
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