Beaufort County Schools will be closed for the day Monday as a precaution due to high winds from Hurricane Sandy, according to Beaufort County Schools’ public information officer Sarah Hodges.

“The winds are just too high to risk putting the buses out,” Hodges said Sunday evening.

As of 8 p.m. Sunday, Beaufort County was relatively unscathed by Hurricane Sandy, which continues to move to the northeast at 15 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami. The storm is expected to continue in this general direction through the day with a turn toward the north tonight followed by a turn to the north-northwest on Monday.

“We are holding up really good,” said John Pack, Beaufort County’s emergency-management director.  “There’s been nothing other than a few minor power outages. No big rash of accidents.”

Pack cautioned that the highest winds could remain through the day Monday.

“We’ll see the highest winds (Monday) morning, peak and hold for a while,” Pack said. “It could last until Tuesday which is longer than we originally thought.”

The center of the storm was located roughly 280 miles east-southeast of Cape Hatteras. Sandy remains a Category 1 storm with maximum sustained winds of 75 mph. Forecasters do not anticipate any significant strengthening over the next few days.

A tropical-storm warning remains in effect for portions of North Carolina from Cape Fear to Duck, covering Beaufort, Tyrrell, Dare, Hyde, Pamlico, Craven, Carteret and Onslow counties and including the Albemarle and Pamlico Sounds.