This satellite image showing Hurricanes Edouard, top, and Fran, bottom, from the National Hurricane Center in Miami, Monday Sept. 2, 1996 shows as of 5PM EDT Edouard located approximately 225 miles Southwest of Halifax, Nova Scotia. The center of Hurricane Fran was located about 560 miles East of Nassau in the Bahamas. Associated Press Photo

Web-posted September 2, 1996

  Fran threatens Southeast coast
  @ugusta Weather

By ANNE WALLACE ALLEN
Associated Press Writer

CHATHAM, Mass. (AP) - Hurricane Edouard shied away from land at the last minute Monday, giving only a glancing blow to Cape Cod and island communities that had been emptied of thousands of holiday weekend tourists.

The storm that once packed winds blowing at a steady 140 mph was little more than an ugly day at the beach for the people who stayed.

Edouard failed to produce any serious damage, although 35,000 to 40,000 customers were without power by early afternoon. A few houses and the Hyannis fire station lost their roofs, and several boats were lost.

People walk along a jetty in Marshfield, Mass., with crashing waves, the remnants of Hurricane Edouard, serving as a backdrop, Monday, Sept. 2, 1996. The hurricane plowed slowly north Monday, decreasing in intensity as it headed toward Nova Scotia, but still bringing high winds and drenching rain that washed out Labor Day parades and picnics. Photo by Jim Rogash/AP

``I think we were lucky this time,'' said Spencer Kennard of Chatham, as waves slapped against a seawall across the street from his parents' 19th century farmhouse.

But while physical damage was relatively light, many businesses had closed on what is usually one of their busiest weekends of the year - the last long weekend of summer.

After driving almost straight northward over the open ocean toward Nantucket, the hurricane took a right turn early in the day. Its center got no closer than 80 miles from Nantucket, where wind gusts peaked at 90 mph. During the afternoon, gusts occasionally hit 60 mph.

Three to 5 inches of rain had fallen over Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket and parts of Cape Cod, and more rain was likely.

Edie Howe, of Pawtucket, R.I., left, and Lynn Thompson, of Norfolk, Mass., lean against the winds of Hurricane Edouard on fisherman's wharf in Provincetown, Mass., on the tip of Cape Cod, Monday, Sept. 2, 1996. Edouard knocked down tree limbs and disrupted power service along much of the Cape. Photo by C.J. Gunther/AP

By 5 p.m., Edouard was headed northeast at 12 mph, and its center was about 225 miles southwest of Halifax, Nova Scotia. Its maximum sustained winds were down to 75 mph, barely strong enough to be still called a hurricane.

On its heels, Hurricane Fran was strengthening as it headed toward the Bahamas and the southeastern United States. By midday, it was about 560 miles east of Nassau, Bahamas, with top sustained winds near 80 mph.

``It could be off the coast of Florida or bearing down on Florida in the next 72 hours or so,'' said meteorologist Brian Maher at the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

Massachusetts Gov. William F. Weld lifted a state of emergency.

Thrill seekers, from l-r, Kevin Houlihan of Lynn, Mass.; Shawn Feeley of Lynn; Julie Skurow of Swampscott, Mass.; and Laurie Nash of Lynn, balance on the seawall at Red Rock in Swampscott, as the surf pushed by hurricane Edouard breaks over them, Monday, Sept. 2, 1996. Photo by Peter Lennihan/AP

Beaches were reopened to swimmers in Rhode Island and points south; two people had died in the storm surf along the New Jersey shore last week.

In North Carolina, where 10- to 12-foot swells had chased people from the beaches Friday, Labor Day was hazy and warm and the fish were biting. ``It's a good final day of summer,'' said Ed Lore, manager of the Surf City Pier.

At Boston's Logan International Airport, many flights were cancelled Sunday night and others were delayed Monday because airlines had moved planes elsewhere as a precaution.

About 900 people spent the night in emergency shelters across Cape Cod.

The storm took its biggest bite out of the area's tourist-dependent economy.

``I think probably millions of dollars worth of food went down the drain yesterday,'' Pat Beaulieu said of the restaurant industry. She closed her Caffe Bella Vita on Nantucket.

On Martha's Vineyard, Bob Delisle called Monday ``a complete washout'' for his Wheel Happy bicycle rental business. He estimated single-day losses at $1,500.