Traffic heads north Sunday afternoon out of Carolina Beach, N.C., after a mandatory evacuation was imposed on the barrier island community. (AP)

Hurricane Dennis, which had teased the Southeast since Friday, took a predicted turn to the northeast Sunday night as it skirted the Carolinas, meaning the eye of the storm – and the very fiercest winds – remained offshore. The Category 2 hurricane, with 100-mph winds, was moving north/northeast this morning at a 12-mph clip, but forecasters with the National Hurricane Center said it could affect the coast of the Carolinas, and even up into Virginia, for days.

The Wilmington-Wrightsville Beach, N.C., area, reported blinding rains and gusts of hurricane-force winds as the storm loomed near the area overnight. But late this morning, the skies were dark and winds brisk, but no rain had attacked Wilmington. Roads were clear and cars were moving along. There was little visible evidence that it was the morning after a hurricane in Wilmington. Officials are still concerned, however, about possible flooding today in low-lying areas.

"They're not experiencing the full effects of the hurricane, but they are getting a battering," meteorologist Todd Kimberlain, with the National Hurricane Center in Miami, said this morning. "The very strong winds extend out over a fairly large area – Dennis is a large hurricane – so you don't have to be at the center of it."

Eight inches of rain pelted Southport, N.C., while as much as 15 inches fell over the Atlantic Ocean. The battleship USS North Carolina in Wilmington measured top winds at 75 mph, the equivalent of a minimal hurricane. At times, two inches of rain an hour were soaking Pender, Brunswick, and New Hanover counties along the North Carolina coast, causing flooding in the low-lying areas.

Officials Sunday night had ordered evacuations of the vulnerable barrier islands from North Carolina's Outer Banks southward, and Wilmington resembled a ghost town as residents took shelter. Some schools and local government offices in the area were closed today.

Last week, residents of Texas's Gulf Coast dodged a bullet when Hurricane Bret, a powerful Category 3 storm, slammed ashore in a sparsely populated area of Kenedy County, where cattle outnumber people, causing minimal damage.

But forecasters today were watching a storm off the African coast that could eventually develop into another major storm. Colorado State University professor William M. Gray has predicted a nasty hurricane season for this year, including 14 named storms.