Click here if you're picking someone up at the airport or flying out.

(Photo courtesy of cbs4.com.)

MIAMI, Sept. 3 (UPI) -- North Carolina got a break from Hurricane Earl, which weakened as it approached the Outer Banks, then veered east and stayed at sea.

Instead of hurricane conditions, the state's coastline was belted Thursday night into Friday morning by tropical storm-force winds that flooded streets, ripped siding off some buildings, tore shingles from roofs and caused spotty power outages, The Charlotte Observer said.

"I think everyone will be grateful, once they see the area after Earl has gone," hurricane chaser Mark Sudduth said Friday. "There hasn't been much damage."

Emergency management officials along North Carolina's Outer Banks reported no significant damage. The most frequent report was ocean overwash scattered along N.C. Highway 12 and on roads adjacent to Pamlico Sound, officials said.

Hurricane Earl, a Category 2 hurricane with top sustained winds of 105 mph, was about 85 miles east of Cape Hatteras, N.C., and about 465 miles south-southwest of Nantucket, Mass., moving north-northeast at 18 mph, the National Hurricane Center in Miami said Friday in its 5 a.m. EDT advisory. The eye of the storm was expected to approach southeastern New England by Friday night.

Hurricane warnings were in effect for Cape Lookout, N.C., to the North Carolina-Virginia state line, and for Westport, Mass., east around Cape Cod to Hull, including Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket Island.

Tropical warnings and watches were posted along the East Coast from North Carolina into Nova Scotia and Newfoundland in Canada, the hurricane center said.

Earl was forecast to pass close to New Jersey Friday afternoon and to move by Cape Cod, Mass., at night night as a Category 1 hurricane, CNN said. It was expected to make a direct landfall over southern Nova Scotia Saturday, still carrying a Category 1 rating.

President Barack Obama signed a disaster declaration for North Carolina and an emergency disaster declaration for Massachusetts.

Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Craig Fugate said the agency is "ready for this storm no matter what happens," CNN reported. FEMA has spent the past few days moving supplies and teams into states from North Carolina to Massachusetts in advance of Earl's arrival.