CHATHAM, Mass. A weakening but still dangerous Hurricane Earl steamed toward the gray-shingled cottages and fishing villages of Cape Cod on Friday night, disrupting peoples 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 Carolinas Outer Banks, where it caused flooding but no injuries and little damage. The storm was swinging of New York City, Long Island and the rest of the mid-Atlantic region, but was expected to bring rain and high winds as it passes just off Cape Cod, Nantucket Island and Marthas Vineyard late Friday night.
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.
No large-scale evacuations were ordered for Cape Cod, where fishermen and other hardy year-round residents have been dealing with gusty noreasters for generations.
"We kind of roll with the punches out here. Its 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. "Its not a 3-foot snowstorm. I think us New Englanders are tough," McDonough said. "Weve 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. By 8 p.m., Earl was a weak hurricane with maximum sustained winds just above the threshold for a hurricane. It seemed likely to be 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 Marthas 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. At 9 p.m., Nantucket was seeing rain, rough surf and winds gusts of 31 mph.
"Weve had some localized flooding on some roads � nothing that a really bad rainstorms at this time of the summer dont already create," Nantucket Assistant Town Manager Gregg Tivnan said Friday night. Officials, however, were expecting heavier rain later in the night.
The last time the Cape was hit directly by a hurricane was 1991, when Bob brought 75 mph gusts that ripped through the regions 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 Cods 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. "Cmon Earl, were ready for you," a handwritten note read.
Earl was staying far off New Jersey and the eastern tip of New Yorks 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.
Earls 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 Centers 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."
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 weve 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 traps. This time, they moved their gear to the safety of deeper water or pulled their traps out altogether.
At Maines 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.
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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, Jay Lindsay and Rodrique Ngowi in Boston contributed to this report.
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