Utilities workers try to support power lines that were blown sideways from winds produced by Hurricane Earl in Nags Head, N.C., on Friday. Earl stayed far off New Jersey and the eastern tip of New York's Long Island.

CHATHAM, Mass. — The remnants of Hurricane Earl headed for Nova Scotia early Saturday after a brush with the Northeast that was far less intense than feared, dumping wind-driven rain on Cape Cod's gray-shingled cottages and fishing villages.

Officials planned to survey the damage from the storm at daybreak, but early reports showed only a few hundred power outages, a handful of downed power lines and isolated flooding in Massachusetts.

Earl swooped into New England waters Friday night as a tropical storm with winds of 70 mph after sideswiping North Carolina's Outer Banks, where it caused flooding but no injuries and little damage. The rain it brought to Cape Cod, Nantucket Island and Martha's Vineyard was more typical of the nor'easters that residents have been dealing with for generations.

Winds on Nantucket, closest to the storm's center, blew at around 30 mph, with gusts above 40 mph. The island got about 1.5 inches of rain, while adjacent Martha's Vineyard got more than 3 inches.

Nantucket, the well-to-do resort island, briefly saw some localized flooding, but it had cleared within hours, Nantucket Assistant Town Manager Gregg Tivnan said. There were no evacuations, power outages or even reports of trees down, he said.

"The south side of the island certainly did take a hit. We'll assess the damage and the erosion to the beach tomorrow, but so far don't have any report of major damage," Tivnan said late Friday.

In the hours and days before the storm, vacationers had pulled their boats from the water and canceled Labor Day weekend reservations on Nantucket. Shopkeepers boarded up their windows. Beachgoers were warned to stay out of the New England waters — or off the beach altogether — because of the danger of getting swept away by high waves.

Airlines canceled dozens of flights into New England, and Amtrak suspended train service between New York and Boston.

The center of the storm passed about 105 miles east-southeast of Nantucket early Saturday and was moving away from the U.S. It was expected to reach the coast of Nova Scotia by Saturday afternoon.

The storm weakened faster than predicted and would continue to diminish, National Weather Service meteorologist Rebecca Gould said.

Earl dulled quickly over the course of 36 hours. By midday Friday, it had dropped to a Category 1 storm — down from a fearsome Category 4 with 145 mph winds a day earlier. At 11 p.m., it was downgraded to a tropical storm.

Earl stayed far off New Jersey and the eastern tip of New York's Long Island as it made its way north.