Hurricane Earl Weakens, Heads up the East Coast CheapOair Staff September 3, 2010 general Hurricane Earl, which battered the North Carolina coast Thursday, was downgraded to a Category 2 storm Friday morning. Earl is headed up the East Coast toward Virginia and Massachusetts, which will both see torrential downpours and heavy winds. The weather service has issued hurricane warnings for Cape Lookout, N.C., the North Carolina-Virginia border, Westport, Mass., Cape Cod, Hull, Mass., Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket. Meanwhile a hurricane watch is in place for Nova Scotia and tropical storm warnings are in place for parts of Virginia, Delaware, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. Earl reached Category 4 earlier this week, but has since weakened to Category 2. As of Friday morning, Earl was moving northeast at 18 miles an hour.
