LUBEC – 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 dumped heavy rain along the state’s midcoast, but its strong winds were offshore as the hurricane stayed toward the southern and eastern edge of its forecast track.
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The National Weather Service dropped a tropical storm warning for the state’s two easternmost counties as winds reached only 45 mph on some outer islands. There were no reports of storm damage.
Instead of strong winds, the storm brought 2 to 3 inches of much-needed rain to most of central Maine, said meteorologist Mark Bloomer in Caribou.
Hope, in Knox County, received 4.25 inches of rain overnight and Brunswick recorded about 3 inches, said George Wiseman, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. In Gray, where the NWS offices in Maine are located, 2.25 inches of rain fell.
Wiseman said there were no indications of anything other than light winds as the storm passed south of Cape Cod and headed east, out to sea. Forecasts early Friday had suggested there was a chance the storm could head through the Gulf of Maine, which would have resulted in heavier rain and strong winds along the coast.
“It sort of left with a whimper,” Wiseman said.
The biggest concern was the surf that was expected to build to 14 feet. People near the coast were warned to keep a safe distance from the pounding waves.
At Acadia National Park, officials closed the road where last year a 7-year-old girl was swept to her death by a 20-foot wave caused by Hurricane Bill.
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. On Friday, 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 doused 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 today, when sunny skies and mild weather are expected.
Other postponements included the 16th annual Camden Windjammer Festival.
The festival, originally scheduled to begin Friday, began Saturday instead and continues through tonight.
In all, there’ll be up to 20 vessels on hand.
There will be a boat parade this afternoon, a concert tonight and fireworks tonight to mark the end of the festival.
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