LUBEC, Maine—Much like Hurricane Kyle two years earlier, Hurricane Earl failed to impress Down East residents as the storm's remnants passed to the east Saturday, raking the region with rain and churning up the surf but failing to generate gusts strong enough to produce damage.
The storm produced gusts up to 45 mph in eastern Maine, and the National Weather Service dropped its tropical storm warning for Washington and Hancock counties at 8:30 a.m.
Instead of strong winds, the storm brought 2 to 5 inches of rain to Washington County, and heavy bands of rain hit other areas, said meteorologist Lee Foster in Caribou.
The biggest concerns were strong surf and rip currents created by 18-foot seas, Foster said. People near the coast were warned to keep a safe distance from the pounding waves.
At Acadia National Park, officials briefly closed the road that provided access to rocks where a 7-year-old girl was swept to her death by a 20-foot wave caused by Hurricane Bill last year.
Off the coast of New Hampshire, the storm interfered with the search for a boater who went missing before the storm's arrival. The Coast Guard said Saturday evening that an air-and-sea search failed to locate Robert Schultze, of Shapleigh, Maine, whose abandoned boat was discovered near Kitts Rocks on Friday. The search was suspended pending further developments.
As Earl approached, recreational boaters moved hundreds of vessels onto dry ground or to safer locations. Lobster fishermen moved their traps to deeper water or pulled them from the water altogether. Many islanders fled to the mainland because of the dismal weekend weather forecast.
But reminiscent of Kyle, Hurricane Earl lost steam and veered to the east. Friday night, it was downgraded to a tropical storm before making landfall at around 11 a.m. Saturday in eastern Nova Scotia.
While tropical storm warnings had been posted for Washington and Hancock counties, the storm didn't gain respect from rugged residents accustomed to fierce winter storms with stronger gusts.
"The wind always blows around here," Mark Jones said Saturday morning as he cooked up ham and sausage for the monthly pancake breakfast at the Masonic lodge in Lubec.
Mark Sprague, of East Machias, said he got the last laugh in a friendly disagreement with his brother, who monitored the storm on the Internet and warned that it packed a powerful wallop.
"I said, 'Walk over to the window and drop that computer out the window,'" Sprague said as he watched the rain falling outside the window of Peanut's Coffee Shop. "This ain't nothing."
In Lubec, the nation's easternmost town, the candy-striped West Quoddy Head lighthouse stood sentry in gray haze as rain blanketed the area Saturday morning.
The sheets of rain didn't keep dozens of residents from attending Lubec's pancake breakfast. But it did prevent buccaneers from Eastport from coming to Lubec in full pirate garb to hoist the jolly roger in celebration of Eastport's upcoming pirate festival.
Cobscook Bay's choppy waters were deemed too rough, so the pirate invasion was delayed until Sunday. By then, sunny skies and mild temperatures were expected.
