By Ray Lamont
Editor
—
The rains pelting Gloucester and other parts of Cape Ann overnight and early this morning were among the bands of what had been Category 4
Hurricane Earl just 36 hours earlier.
But after the storm weakened and shifted its course to the east Friday,
residents and officials across the region awoke this morning to find
few lasting signs of Earl's overnight passing that ultimately proved to
be well off Gloucester's and Cape Ann's shores.
At the Cape Ann Chamber of Commerce, the word was that Labor Day Weekend life should go forward, full speed ahead.
"All of the official Schooner Festival events are going to take place," said Tracy Arabian, administrative assistant and the Chamber's liaison to the Gloucester Schooner Fest, which kicks off today.
The Boat Parade of Lights and the Labor Day fireworks display, both scheduled for tonight, were canceled as Earl approached Thursday night, as was Friday night's scheduled Downtown Block Party.
But beyond that, Gloucester and Cape Ann residents, businesses and weekend visitors are all hoping they can brush off Earl's visit and enjoy a bright final weekend to the traditional summer season.
"We are ready, and we've been ready," Gloucester Mayor Carolyn Kirk said Friday night, "but this is a real case where no (emergency) news is good news."
Hopes weren't so high even Friday morning, when Cape Ann and all of Essex County were issued a tropical storm warning from the National Weather Service.
Diminishing punch
Earl began Friday as a Category 2 hurricane off the North Carolina and Virginia coasts and seemed poised to deliver a dire hit to Nantucket, Cape Cod and parts of the South Shore, which, under full hurricane warnings, braced for a Category 1 storm.
But by late Friday morning, Earl, confronted by cooler waters and an inland cold front, shifted its path to the east and weakened, leading forecasters to scale back overnight forecasts to potentially heavy rain and sustained winds of 20-40 mph, with higher gusts.
In the end, however, there were just a few scattered power outages reported on Cape Cod late Friday and into the wee hours of this morning, and National Grid reported a loss of power for fewer than 100 customers, even in areas that were bracing for a more threatening hit.
Closer to home, the storm never came close to approaching the wrath of the nor'easter that bore down on Cape Ann the night of Feb. 25. That storm, which downed scores of trees and power lines and ripped the roofs from buildings on Gloucester's Back Shore and elsewhere, included sustained winds of 70 mph measured in Rockport, with gusts of 87 mph recorded at Gap Cove.
'Celebrating Gloucester'
While all Gloucester beaches were shutdown Friday — with the parking gates closed and no beach services available — all are expected to open as usual today, though swimming will be limited in the face of a National Weather Service surf and riptide warning.
In addition to the Schooner Festival going forward, the first Celebrate Gloucester concert — scheduled to feature Roomful of Blues, Charles Neville, Henri Smith and many others — is also on for Sunday, set to run from 3 to 11 p.m. on the city's waterfront I-4, C-2 site off Rogers Street.
That storm passed Cape Ann far out to sea early this week. But its wake, combined with a Mid-Atlantic low-pressure system, produced dangerous Tuesday riptides that also closed city beaches to swimmers and claimed the life of a recreational fishermen from Belmont who slipped from a rock and fell into the stormy surf on the grounds of the Gonzaga Retreat House on Eastern Point.
Ray Lamont can be reached at 978-283-7000, x3438, or rlamont@gloucestertimes.com.
