Hurricane Earl sideswipes NC’s Outer Banks, then takes aim at New England; Cape Cod threatened

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Earl sideswipes NC, takes aim at New England

CHATHAM, Mass. — A weakening but still dangerous Hurricane Earl steamed toward the gray-shingled cottages and fishing villages of Cape Cod on Friday, disrupting people’s vacations on the unofficial final weekend of the short New England summer.

Packing winds of 75 mph, the storm swirled up the Eastern Seaboard after sideswiping North Carolina’s Outer Banks, where it caused flooding but no injuries and little damage. For the most part, it was expected to swing wide of New York City and Long Island, and much of the rest of the mid-Atlantic region, but pass close by Cape Cod, Nantucket Island and Martha’s Vineyard late Friday night, bringing rain and high winds.

Vacationers pulled their boats from the water and canceled Labor Day weekend reservations on Nantucket, the well-to-do resort island and old-time whaling port expected to get the worst of the storm. Shopkeepers boarded up their windows. Swimmers in New England were warned to stay out of the water — or off the beach altogether — because of the danger of getting swept away by high waves.

Airlines canceled dozens of flights into New England, and Amtrak suspended train service between New York and Boston.

As of Friday afternoon, no large-scale evacuations were ordered for the Cape Cod area, where fishermen and other hardy year-round residents have been dealing with gusty nor’easters for generations.

“We kind of roll with the punches out here. It’s not a huge deal for us,” said Scott Thomas, president of the Nantucket Chamber of Commerce.

On Cape Cod, Ellen McDonough and a friend waited for one of the last ferries to Nantucket before service was suspended because of the approaching storm. “It’s not a 3-foot snowstorm. I think us New Englanders are tough,” McDonough said. “We’ve had this weekend planned, and no hurricane is going to stop us.”

Nantucket Police Chief William Pittman warned island residents against complacency, saying Earl was still a dangerous storm with severe winds.

By midday Friday, Earl had dropped to a Category 1 storm — down from a fearsome Category 4 with 145 mph winds a day earlier. Forecasters said it could weaken to a tropical storm by the time it passed about 50 to 75 miles southeast of Nantucket.

As Earl lost steam and veered farther east, the National Hurricane Center reduced the New England areas under a hurricane warning to Cape Cod, Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard, the elite vacation spot that President Barack Obama left just last weekend.

The National Weather Service was forecasting winds up to 65 mph on Nantucket with gusts up to 85 mph. On Cape Cod, winds up to 45 mph with gusts of up to 60 mph were expected.

The last time the Cape was hit directly by a hurricane was 1991, when Bob brought 75 mph gusts that ripped through the region’s grassy dunes, snapped trees and tore roofs off the weathered gray homes.

Few seemed worried about a repeat Friday in Chatham, a fishing village at Cape Cod’s eastern edge where tourists strolled past the bookstores, cafes and ice cream parlors on Main Street. A few stores had put plywood over their windows, including the Ben Franklin Old Fashioned Variety Store. “C’mon Earl, we’re ready for you,” a handwritten note read.

Earl was expected to remain more than 150 miles off New Jersey and the eastern tip of New York’s Long Island as it made its way north. But it kicked up dangerous riptides up and down the coast. In New Jersey, two young men apparently died earlier this week in the rough surf caused by Earl and the hurricane before it, Danielle.

Rain from the outer bands of the hurricane forced a 25-minute delay at the U.S. Open tennis tournament in New York City. It also forced the postponement of a Red Sox-White Sox game in Boston.

On the Outer Banks, officials had urged tens of thousands of visitors and residents to leave the dangerously exposed islands as the storm closed in, but hundreds chose to wait it out in their boarded-up homes.

Earl’s winds had dropped to 105 mph by the time the storm brushed past the ribbon of islands before dawn, and the storm center got no closer to shore than 85 miles. Hurricane-force winds, which start at 74 mph, apparently did not even reach the Outer Banks, said the National Hurricane Center’s chief forecaster, James Franklin.

North Carolina Gov. Beverly Perdue said there was no serious damage and urged people to get back out for the Labor Day weekend to “have a little fun and spend some money.”

Nancy Scarborough of Cape Hatteras said she had about a foot of water underneath her home, which is on stilts. “Once it goes down, it shouldn’t take long to get things back together,” she said.

In Rhode Island, the popular tourist destination Block Island was expecting gusts as high as 60 mph. Gov. Don Carcieri warned of possible flooding on the mainland, and asked people to stay off the roads, but added: “Everything looks like we’ve dodged this.”

Twenty miles out off the Maine coast, lobstermen on Matinicus Island were cautious after getting fooled by Hurricane Bill, which missed the mainland last year but sent tides and rough seas that destroyed their gear. This time, they moved their gear to the safety of deeper water or pulled their traps out altogether.

At Maine’s Acadia National Park, officials closed most of a road where a 7-year-old girl was swept to her death by a 20-foot wave last year while watching the swells from Bill.

Associated Press writers Mike Baker in Buxton, N.C.; Jeffrey Collins in Columbia, S.C.; Michelle Smith in Providence, R.I.; David Sharp in Portland, Maine; and Lyle Moran, Denise Lavoie and Jay Lindsay in Boston contributed to this report.