Gustav hits hurricane strength, heads for Canadian coast

Larry Grubbs prepares to pull out a stranded motorist during a rainstorm caused by Tropical Storm Gustav in Waves, North Carolina.

(CNN) -- Tropical Storm Gustav, which buffeted the coasts of North Carolina and Virginia, became the first hurricane of the 2002 Atlantic season on Wednesday.

The storm traveled up the eastern seaboard Wednesday and gathered enough punch to be declared a hurricane by the National Weather Service.

Hurricane Gustav, with 90 mph winds, was still 275 miles from land, south- southwest of Halifax, Nova Scotia, at 5 p.m. ET., heading northeast at 38 mph.

The Meteorological Service of Canada issued rainfall and wind warnings for much of Newfoundland, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island as the hurricane was expected to merge with a low pressure system from the Great Lakes and become a massive post-tropical low pressure system.

RESOURCES CNN.com's 2002 Hurricane special     HURRICANE GUSTAV As of 8 p.m. EDT on September 11 Latitude: 43.3 North Longitude: 62.7 West

Hurricane force winds extended 85 miles out from the center, while the tropical storm wind boundary reached out 260 miles.

Six earlier tropical storms failed to reach the 74 mph mark that indicates a hurricane.

National Weather Service forecasters in Miami said they expected little change in Gustav's strength over the next 24 hours, but said the storm's forward march should pick up.

The rain and wind should diminish later Thursday as the storm heads farther out to sea, Canadian forecasters said.

As a tropical storm, Gustav drove strong riptides and high surf onto the North Carolina and Virginia coasts, temporarily knocking power out on parts of North Carolina's Outer Banks.