Weakened Storm Earl Heads Towards Canada

(NewsCore) - Tropical storm Earl was heading towards the Canadian province of Nova Scotia Saturday after passing through New England, with conditions not as intense as first feared.

Cape Cod was hit by heavy wind and rain and officials were planning to survey any damage later Saturday, but early reports suggested only a few hundred power outages and a handful of downed power lines with isolated flooding in Massachusetts.

Earl moved into the waters of New England late Friday as a tropical storm with winds of 70mph (110 kph) sideswiped North Carolina's outer banks where it caused flooding. However, there were no injuries reported.

Earl weakened quickly during a 36-hour period and was dropped to a Category One storm, way down from its Category Four status with 145mph winds. It was later downgraded further to a tropical storm.

The storm, according to U.S. forecasters, was making a gradual turn northeast. "On the forecast track, the center of Earl will move near or over Nova Scotia today," the U.S National Hurricane Center (NHC) predicted.

Although the forecast for the next 48 hours was for a further gradual weakening of Earl, it was expected to become "a very large and strong extratropical low pressure system as it moves across the Canadian maritime provinces," said the NHC.

The Canadian Hurricane Center issued a hurricane watch for Nova Scotia from Ecum Secum to Point Tupper.