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Arthur Disrupts July 4th Festivities, But Does Little Damage

Katie Bender gets some assistance from Johanna Bender, left, as they dump water from a boot while sitting on a flooded street after Hurricane Arthur passed through in Manteo, N.C., on Friday.
Gerry Broome
/
AP
Katie Bender gets some assistance from Johanna Bender, left, as they dump water from a boot while sitting on a flooded street after Hurricane Arthur passed through in Manteo, N.C., on Friday.

The headline in The Boston Globe sums it up: "Arthur douses, but does little damage."

The first hurricane of the season has raked the Atlantic seaboard from Florida to Massachusetts and is hitting the Canadian Maritimes as a tropical storm packing 60 mph winds. On North Carolina's barrier islands, which took a direct hit from Arthur, people were mainly concerned with salvaging the rest of their holiday weekend after the storm caused only slight damage as it passed through on Friday.

USA Today says:

"The storm proved far less damaging than feared in North Carolina. Some homes and businesses were flooded, trees toppled and initially thousands were without electricity after Arthur raced through."

"As of Friday morning, more than 41,000 customers were without power, State Emergency Operations spokesman Rick Martinez said. Carteret County had 11,000 outages, the most of any county, he said. No injuries or deaths were reported."

"Gov. Pat McCrory pronounced the state's beaches 'open for business.' In a press briefing Friday, he said there has been minimal damage and things look 'quite good' throughout the coast."

Farther north, the Globe notes:

"Hurricane Arthur passed by the Massachusetts coast on Friday, creating a soggy July Fourth for many who endured heavy rains and flooding, especially in the southeastern region, but causing no major damage.

"As the storm continued into the night, Nantucket experienced flooding and high winds. Minor flooding forced road closures in Boston and some communities south of the city. Heavy rain fell in New Bedford, where 8 inches of rain caused flooding on Route 6."

NPR's Dan Karpenchuk, reporting from Toronto, says 30,000 homes and businesses in Nova Scotia are without power due to the storm.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Scott Neuman is a reporter and editor, working mainly on breaking news for NPR's digital and radio platforms.