Weakened Hurricane Arthur takes aim at US resort areas of Nantucket, Cape Cod

Jack Segar (right) and Finn Harden run across a deserted sandbar beach outside Barnstable Harbor as storm clouds associated with Tropical Storm Arthur pass over Cape Cod Bay behind them in Barnstable, Massachusetts on July 4, 2014. -- PHOTO: REUTERS
Jack Segar (right) and Finn Harden run across a deserted sandbar beach outside Barnstable Harbor as storm clouds associated with Tropical Storm Arthur pass over Cape Cod Bay behind them in Barnstable, Massachusetts on July 4, 2014. -- PHOTO: REUTERS

BOSTON (REUTERS) - A weakened but fast-moving Hurricane Arthur swept into southern New England on Friday night, wielding tropical storm-force winds, after an earlier landfall in North Carolina that caused only slight damage.

The Massachusetts summer resort areas of Nantucket and Cape Cod, popular destinations for visitors over the Fourth of July holiday weekend, were issued tropical storm warnings by the US National Hurricane Centre (NHC), which predicted powerful winds and several inches of rain.

"It will certainly have some impact for southern New England," said John Cangialosi, an NHC meteorologist. "It's very tricky conditions there for the Fourth."

Offshore and moving northeast quickly, Arthur was expected to bring rain and winds of tropical storm strength, or 39 to 73 miles per hour (63 to 117 kph), to the Massachusetts coast, the centre said.

Eastern Maine and eastern Rhode Island were also set to be pelted with rain but slightly weaker winds, the NHC said.

"The centre of Arthur will pass southeast of New England tonight and be over western Nova Scotia on Saturday and over the Gulf of St. Lawrence on Saturday night," the National Weather Service said in an advisory.

In Massachusetts on Friday, the storm brought driving rain and caused isolated power outages and flooding.

On Thursday, the famed Boston Pops Fireworks Spectacular, already rescheduled a day early due to the weather, was cut short by heavy rain and lightning.

The National Weather Service cautioned that swells were affecting the coast of North Carolina, the mid-Atlantic and Northeast United States that could cause "life-threatening" surf and rip currents.

The first hurricane of the Atlantic season, Arthur cut power to almost 20,000 homes and businesses, downed trees and cut off barrier islands from the mainland after making landfall on North Carolina's Outer Banks late on Thursday. State officials said there was minimal damage from the storm, the earliest in the season to hit North Carolina since records began in 1851.

A dozen counties were under states of emergency, and the tourist haven of Ocracoke Island was without power. "This has been a very good day. There have been no casualties or serious injuries reported," North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory said at a news conference in Raleigh.

Arthur hit with top sustained winds of 100 mph (160 kph), earning a Category 2 status on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale. It weakened to a Category 1 as it moved northeast into colder waters of the Atlantic Ocean with 90-mph (145-kph) top sustained winds.

Thousands of beachgoers had left North Carolina's low-lying Outer Banks ahead of the storm. Kathleen O'Neal, owner of Island Artworks on Ocracoke Island, said she could feel her house lift up as the storm passed overhead. "It was very bad here," she said, adding that many trees had been knocked down.

Officials on Ocracoke said power could be restored by late on Sunday. A generator was supplying power on a rotating basis. McCrory's office said the highway connecting Hatteras Island to the mainland had been blocked but was expected to reopen by late on Sunday.

Arthur was the first hurricane to hit the United States since Superstorm Sandy devastated New York and New Jersey in October 2012, causing an estimated US$70 billion (S$87 billion) in damage.

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