Earl spares Connecticut

Hartford, Conn. (WTNH) - Governor M. Jodi Rell said on Friday evening that Hurricane Earl's initial brush with Connecticut has gone much as expected, adding that the state has benefitted in many ways from the storm's gradual weakening and north-northeast track.

"Nature continues to give Connecticut a lot of breathing room," Rell said. "The waning intensity of the storm, combined with the slight change in direction, has meant that the winds and rains have so far been much more moderate than the National Hurricane Center computer models predicted. For that we can all be grateful."

State officials spent Friday preparing for any possibility.

The State Emergency Management Center is fully operational with all state agencies, utilities and law enforcement representatives in place to monitor Hurricane Earl as it passed near southeastern Connecticut.

Rell spent most of the morning in a closed door briefing at the center for a complete update on preparations by the DOT and DEP for debris removal from strong winds. The National Guard is on standby.

"Department of Homeland Security/Emergency Management has been in touch with all of the emergency operations centers throughout southeastern Connecticut and the mayors and first selectmen," Rell said. "Obviously, if it stays on track, I think many of us believe that we've sort of lucked out a little bit."

The Emergency Management Center has been fully staffed all day and will be ready to move if gusty winds cause problems overnight.

The storm weakened throughout the day and was eventually downgraded to a tropical storm. At  11 p.m., Earl had maximum sustained winds of 70 mph. The National Weather Service says the center of the storm is expected to pass about 50 to 75 miles southeast of Nantucket sometime after midnight.

Rell and her team were in constant contact with emergency management officials in all of the shoreline towns.

"We're on top of it, we're monitoring it, we'll continue to monitor it throughout the day and my advice to the public is use good common sense," Rell said.

In addition, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services sent teams to work with state officials.

Southeastern Connecticut was the area most affected by the storm. Bands of wind and rain began moving through the region Friday afternoon. As of early evening, there had been no reports of injuries, major damage or widespread power outages.

Connecticut Light and Power spokesman Mitch Gross said that as of 7 p.m., about 300 customers were without power, mostly in the southeastern part of the state. That was down from more than 700 customers earlier in the evening.

"We have been well-prepared for this storm, but we have also caught some very lucky breaks," Rell said. "While still a hurricane and still a threat, the storm has steadily dwindled in intensity. Moreover, it has done so much more rapidly than the forecasts suggested last night or this morning. Hurricane Earl has also kept to the track that it was predicted to take. Even a small variation might have meant the storm, no matter how much it has weakened, would have delivered a much more destructive blow."

The U.S. Coast Guard positioned its boats around Connecticut and Rhode Island to prepare for any rescues and to check navigation markers to make sure they weren't moved by the storm, said Lt. Tom Stokes, commanding officer of the Coast Guard station in New London.

"It's important that they're exactly where they're supposed to be," Stokes said.

Based on current projections, Stokes said, "It's not going to be much more than a normal storm, it sounds like."

But Stokes said he hoped boaters heeded warnings to stay out of the water.

Amtrak suspended service Friday afternoon between New York and Boston after a tree fell on the tracks on Waterford. Service is expected to resume Saturday morning.