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Chatham, Mass. (AP) -- A weakening Hurricane Earl swiped past
North Carolina on Friday on its way to New England, where officials
warned residents that it still packed dangerous winds that could
topple trees or damage the area's picturesque gray-shingled
cottages.


      Earl dropped to a Category 1 storm - down from a powerful
Category 4 a day earlier - with sustained winds of 85 mph. The
storm could weaken to a tropical storm by the time it passes about
50 to 75 miles southeast of Nantucket on Friday night, said
National Hurricane Center Director Bill Read.


      "The good news on Earl is it has been steadily weakening, maybe
even a little quicker than forecast," Read said.


      Nantucket police chief William Pittman warned island residents
against complacency, saying Earl was "still a dangerous storm"
with severe winds that could be stronger than those carried by the
gusty nor'easters the island is used to absorbing.


      The National Hurricane Center reduced the New England areas
under a hurricane warning to just Cape Cod and the islands. The
rest of the New England coast remained under tropical storm
warnings and watches.


      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.


      Earl sideswiped North Carolina's Outer Banks early Friday,
flooding the vacation islands but causing no injuries and little
damage. The storm's winds had dropped by then to 105 mph from 145
mph a day before.


      Hurricane-force winds, which start at 74 mph, apparently did not
reach the Outer Banks, said the National Hurricane Center's chief
forecaster, James Franklin. Officials had urged some 35,000
visitors and residents on the Outer Banks to leave the dangerously
exposed islands as the storm closed in, but hundreds chose to wait
it out in their boarded-up homes.

      Nancy Scarborough of 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 Massachusetts, Gov. Deval Patrick declared a state of
emergency Thursday as he urged residents not to panic.


      On Friday, many seemed to be following his advice. Traffic was
light on both bridges to and from Cape Cod, where the air was still
and heavy rains started in the late morning.


      In downtown Chatham, a quaint fishing village at Cape Cod's
eastern edge, tourists strolled the bookstores, cafes, candy shops
and ice cream parlors on Main Street, largely unconcerned about the
coming storm.


      A handful of 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.


      In a parking lot near downtown, five large utility trucks sat
waiting and linemen milled about, ready to fix any possible power
outages. A handful of people walked on a beach nearby, the waves
gently lapping the sand.


      In Barnstable, Ellen McDonough, of Boston, and a friend were
waiting Friday morning for one of the last ferries to Nantucket
before service was stopped around noon. The two had planned a Labor
Day weekend getaway to the island and didn't see Earl as a good
reason to cancel.


      "It's not a three-foot snow storm. I think us New Englanders
are tough," McDonough said. "We've had this weekend planned, and
no hurricane is going to stop us."


      Scott Thomas, president of the Nantucket Island Chamber of
Commerce, said island residents were taking the coming storm in
stride.


      "This is not something that is really unheard of for us, in
terms of being prepped for it and being ready to handle something
like this," he said. "We kind of roll with the punches out here;
it's not a huge deal for us."


      Thomas Kinton Jr., executive director of the Massachusetts Port
Authority, which runs Logan International Airport in Boston, said
he didn't expect major commercial airlines to cancel flights
because of Earl. Cape Air, which serves Cape Cod, will be ending
its flights at midday Friday, he said.


      "The potential impacts to (Logan) airport are lessening as the
hurricane gets closer," Kinton said.


      In New York City, officials were on alert but said they expected
to see only side effects of the storm - mostly rain and high winds,
with possible soil erosion on the beaches and flooding along the
oceanside coasts of Brooklyn and Queens.


      In Rhode Island, Gov. Donald Carcieri signed a disaster
declaration Thursday, giving emergency workers access to state and
federal resources to deal with problems that may be caused by the
hurricane. Block Island, a popular Rhode Island tourist
destination, was expected to gusts as high as 60 mph.


      At Acadia National Park in Maine officials closed most of a road
where thousands of visitors gathered last year to watch the swells
from Hurricane Bill, and a 20-foot wave swept a 7-year-old girl to
her death.


      Just off the coast of Maine and New Hampshire, some island
residents decided to play it safe and return to the mainland.


      Robert Bohlmann, emergency management agency director in York
County, Maine, said some homes on the rocky Isles of Shoals belong
to fishermen who have no intention of leaving.


      "You couldn't get them off the island if you dragged them,"
Bohlmann said. "It's their homes and they're don't want to
leave."


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

Gallery

Disasters

A weakening Hurricane Earl swiped past
North Carolina on Friday on its way to New England.

Earl sideswipes NC, takes aim at New England

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