A weakening Hurricane Earl swiped past North Carolina on Friday on its way to the northeastern U.S., where officials warned residents that it still packed dangerous winds. Earl dropped to a Category 1 storm _ down from a powerful Category 4 a day earlier _ with sustained winds of 80 mph (129 kph). The storm could weaken to a tropical storm by the time it passes about 50 to 75 miles (80 to 120 kilometers) southeast of Nantucket on Friday night, AP cited National Hurricane Center Director Bill Read as saying. «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 storms 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. As of 2 p.m. EDT, Earl's center was located about 290 miles (465 kilometers) south-southwest of Nantucket, Massachusetts, and moving north-northeast at nearly 21 mph (33 kph). Most of the hurricane force winds were expected to remain offshore. The National Weather Service was forecasting winds up to 65 mph (105 kph) on Nantucket with gusts up to 85 mph (137 kph). On Cape Cod, winds up to 45 mph (72 kph) with gusts of up to 60 mph (100 kph) 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 (169 kph) from 145 mph (233 kph) a day before. Hurricane-force winds, which start at 74 mph (119 kph), 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. In Massachusetts, Governor 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. 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.» 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.
