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Hurricane Bill Moves North, Threatening to Soak Coast
Hurricane Bill was weakening Saturday as it traveled north toward Canada, after blowing through Bermuda and bringing dangerous swells and rip currents to beaches on the Atlantic coast of the United States.
Residents of the Canadian provinces of Newfoundland, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island braced for the hurricane, which was expected to dump up to seven inches of rain and cause storm surges on Sunday, according to government forecasters in Canada and the United States.
The storm, downgraded to a Category 1 hurricane on Saturday evening, was expected to pass off the shore of New England. The National Weather Service issued a tropical storm warning for the Massachusetts coast, including Martha’s Vineyard, where President Obama and his family are to begin a vacation on Sunday. They are likely to be met on the ground by about an inch of rain.
After a very slow June and July, the first Atlantic hurricane of the season had a tempered arrival and appeared to have caused no severe damage. Bermuda’s airport reopened Saturday afternoon after being closed on Friday evening, as officials there reported some flooding. There were no reports of casualties after the hurricane struck with winds less intense than had been anticipated.
“There is minimal damage to most structures,” Walter Roban, the acting minister of labor, home affairs and housing, said in a telephone interview. The storm had been downgraded to a Category 2 hurricane from a Category 3, and its path had shifted west by the time it struck Friday night.
“This was well below the worst of what we had expected,” Mr. Roban said.
Still, Dennis Feltgen, a spokesman for the National Hurricane Center, said the storm was “nothing to fool around with.”
Rain from the outermost western bands of the hurricane was expected to blanket Cape Cod, Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard on Saturday, continuing into the night. Wind speeds in a tropical storm range from 39 to 73 miles an hour. If all goes according to the forecast, Cape Cod should escape the worst of the hurricane.
“We expect it to be about 170 miles east of Nantucket by midnight,” said Kim Buttrick, a meteorologist for the Weather Service in Taunton, Mass.
In the New York City area, six beaches, in Brooklyn, in Queens and on Staten Island, remained closed Saturday for a second day as large waves battered the shore and officials monitored the track of the storm. Jones Beach, which was experiencing flooding, was closed for swimming. Robert Moses State Park was open only for sunbathing. And in Hither Hills State Park in Montauk, swimming was prohibited.
Coastal flood advisories and a flash flood warning were in effect for most parts of the New York area. Officials for the New York State park system were reporting waves up to 10 feet high.
In Canada, residents of the Maritime Provinces began preparing for the storm as early as Thursday. The Exxon Mobil Corporation evacuated about 200 workers from its installations off the coast of Nova Scotia, and the main ferry service to the island of Newfoundland planned to suspend service for 24 hours starting Sunday morning.
Hurricane Bill’s wind speeds were expected to drop to tropical storm levels Monday morning.
Earlier this month, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration lowered its estimate for the number of storms in the Atlantic for this hurricane season, which began June 1 and runs through November. It attributed the change to a developing El Niño, which warmed tropical waters in the Pacific and consequently calmed storm activity in the Atlantic.
“Just because we had a relatively quiet June and July,” Mr. Feltgen said, “it’s no harbinger for the rest of the season.”
Sarah Wheaton contributed reporting.
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