New Jersey Exhales as Hurricane Earl Passes Far Offshore
Earl has come and gone but he was all bark and no bite. It's beautiful in Ocean City, New Jersey. Aside from the rough surf, it's a perfect beach day.
KYW's Mike Dougherty reports Pat from Morristown says this is her favorite time of the year at the shore:
"I like it when everybody leaves and you have a little bit more freedom and the boardwalk isn't as crowded. So we really like it. People like this (laugh) they're shoobies. They just show up."
(Dougherty:) Now what's a shoobie?
"A shoobie is somebody that just shows up for a couple days here or there and then they leave."
Others say it's sad that summer's over and winter is on the way.
KYW's David Madden reports that most communities took down their emergency declarations long before the storm made its way a couple of hundred miles off shore (see previous story).
Earl weakened to a category 1 as it made its way northward, and ventured further east than forecasters had predicted.
Complete Coverage of Hurricane Earl
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Even though Earl never turned into the nor'easter most people expected, the ocean's fury was still evident for all to see. Just ask Sea Isle City lifeguard Doug Nowak:
"The surf is bigger than usual. We've seen bigger in the past, but the bigger concern is the rip tides caused by the tropical storm."
The rough surf put on quite a show for Jimmy Brogan of Havertown, Pa. He stood on the reef at Townsend's Inlet, watching the waves break over the jetty:
"It's beautiful -- whitecaps. The waves crashing here against the rocks. We expected it to be much rougher here because it's the ocean coming in the inlet."
Most communities kept bathers out of the ocean as a precaution, due to strong rip currents likely to continue through most of the weekend.
All in all, there is agreement here that the Jersey shore dodged a bullet.
Stay tuned to KYW Newsradio 1060 for AccuWeather forecasts eight times every hour, 24 hours a day.
