Storm Earl barreled toward Canada past the northeastern US state of Massachusetts early yesterday after it weakened further and was downgraded from a hurricane to a tropical storm. However, it still lashed the US East Coast with heavy rains and strong winds.
Residents in North Carolina were mopping up after a storm surge sent waves crashing ashore, flooding roads on the low-lying barrier islands as the high winds caused sporadic power outages.
New England and the outlying tourist hotspot of Cape Cod was close to Earl’s path, although it was not expected to receive a direct hit.
“At this time we have no official reports of fatalities related to the storm track nor do we have any report of damage,” Craig Fugate, head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), told reporters.
Despite the downgrade of the storm, transport to and from Cape Cod and the nearby high-end destination islands of Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard, where last week US President Barack Obama and family vacationed, was limited.
The high-speed ferry service to the islands was canceled, as were dozens of flights by the region’s leading airline, Cape Air.
And the Friday traffic commute over Cape Cod’s two bridges was extremely light, given that the Labor Day weekend usually boasts a four to five-hour gridlock.
The National Hurricane Center (NHC) said winds had weakened to near 110kph as the storm lost steam churning northward over cooler waters.
“Additional weakening is forecast during the next 48 hours,” the center added.
Early yesterday, the center of Earl was about 150km southeast of Nantucket and picking up speed as it traveled northeast at 41kph.
The storm, according to US forecasters, was making a gradual turn northeast.
“On the forecast track, Earl will pass offshore of Cape Cod overnight and reach the coast of Nova Scotia on Saturday,” the NHC predicted. Across Cape Cod, storm warnings had sent utility crews out trimming tree limbs from electrical lines and setting up rescue staging areas by the Cape’s main mall to confront power outages.
Heading warnings, local residents were literally battening down the hatches along the beach paradise’s commercial spine, Route 28, which runs parallel to the Atlantic.
Commercial and residential properties were boarded up with heavy plywood, but many businesses had signs spray painted “Still Open” in neon colors.
Weather watchers said Earl was still the most powerful storm to threaten the US Northeast since 1991, when Hurricane Bob killed six people.
Joe Gurl, owner of the Polar Cave ice cream shop in West Yarmouth, said tourists had all left Cape Cod “in a hurry” on Thursday.
“But the locals are all here,” Gurl said. “We really haven’t had a major hurricane since 1991, but I’m ready. You fill up the car with gas. You fill up the generator with gas. You get ready for the power to go out. I’m ready.”
Local shops were experiencing runs on batteries, water, bread and milk, “and a lot of junk food,” said Shaw’s supermarket front manager Grace Szarecka, 32, in South Yarmouth. At Bass River Liquors in South Yarmouth, manager Mark Lauzon, was boarding up his shop with plywood.
“But it is not Earl I’m worried about. It is Dick and Joe and Bob breaking into my store if we have no power,” he said.
The storm didn’t scare many from the beaches at sunset on Friday. As winds began whipping Smuggler’s Beach in South Yarmouth, waves crashed over the picturesque rock jetty.
Watching the waves, Marlene Ryan, a Louisville, Kentucky native who owns a vacation home on Cape Cod, said she had done her preparations, but was watching the sea for “something beautiful to happen. Storms can do that,” she said.
Local police and fire crews were also on alert.
While initial reports showed Earl had only had a minimal impact in North Carolina, Fugate warned: “We still don’t know what Earl’s impact will be when it passes the Northeast tonight.”
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