Hurricane Delivers Only Glancing Blow

CHATHAM, Mass. â€”  Hurricane Edouard shied away from land at the last minute Monday, giving only a glancing blow to Cape Cod and island communities that had been emptied of thousands of holiday weekend tourists.

The storm that once packed winds of 140 mph was little more than an ugly day at the beach for the people who stayed.

Edouard failed to produce any serious damage, although 35,000 to 40,000 customers were without power by early afternoon. A few houses and a fire station lost their roofs, and several boats were lost.

“I think we were lucky this time,� said Spencer Kennard of Chatham, as waves slapped against a sea wall across the street from his parents’ 19th-century farmhouse.

But while physical damage was light, many businesses had closed on what is usually one of their busiest weekends of the year.

After driving northward over the open ocean toward Nantucket, the hurricane turned right early in the day. Its center got no closer than 80 miles from Nantucket, where wind gusts peaked at 90 mph. During the afternoon, gusts occasionally hit 60 mph.

Three to 5 inches of rain had fallen over Martha’s Vineyard, Nantucket and parts of Cape Cod, and more rain was likely.

By 5 p.m., Edouard was headed northeast at 12 mph, and its center was about 225 miles southwest of Halifax, Nova Scotia. Its maximum sustained winds were down to 75 mph, barely strong enough to still be called a hurricane.

On its heels, Hurricane Fran was strengthening as it headed toward the Bahamas and the southeastern United States. By midday, it was about 560 miles east of Nassau, Bahamas, with top sustained winds near 80 mph.

“It could be off the coast of Florida or bearing down on Florida in the next 72 hours or so,� said meteorologist Brian Maher at the National Hurricane Center in Miami.