Weakening Earl sideswipes East Coast

>>> good evening. last night at this time it was the biggest storm on the planet, but in a fortunate and welcome turn of events, the hurricane named earl, once a raging and grinding category four, is tonight barely a category one. it took its time but now it's making all the right turns. and a lot of people owe a huge debt of thanks to the air that came rushing across the country to shred the storm and to push the storm out to the east on the friday before labor day weekend . while, sadly, parts of new york -- you see it there -- and new england are still in for a storm , it is nothing close to what it almost was. we want to begin our coverage tonight where the storm is. peter alexander in montauk at the tip of new york 's long island. peter, good evening.

>> reporter: brian, good evening to you. there are more battering waves hitting this coast tonight, but be clear. there is also great relief here that this storm has largely stayed out at sea. still, by the end of today, 13 states will have felt the impact of earl. like an unwelcome guest overnight along north carolina 's outer banks , hurricane earl crashed the start of the labor day weekend . al roker witnessed its arrival.

>> right now, we're getting the worst of these feeder bands and i've got -- oh, my gosh. the winds are really whipping.

>> reporter: punishing winds and rain pounded the coast. the weather channel 's jim cantore was in cape hatteras .

>> as you can see, we are still taking it on the chin. this water is compliments of pamlico sound and it continues to push up with these strong northerly winds.

>> reporter: dawn revealed roads that looked like rivers and a beach full of tires that were submerged for decades as an artificial reef . but because earl's strongest winds never reached shore, damage was remarkably limited. with no reports of major injury and only scattered power outages. by midday, earl had weakened to a category one storm , but remained dangerous. on the jersey shore , a 20-year-old man is presumed dead after he disappeared while swimming thursday night. those powerful waves are still hammering away at long island, new york .

>> obviously the surf has come up a lot. there is definitely a riptide out there. we're starting to see a lot of beach erosion .

>> reporter: but they are perfect conditions for the fearless. how have the waves been?

>> they have been fantastic. really fantastic. can't complain.

>> reporter: good memories of earl?

>> definitely. definitely. he's a good friend.

>> reporter: now awaiting its turn, cape cod .

>> everybody's frantic. everybody's got to get the medicine. they've got to get batteries. they wiped us out of just about everything.

>> reporter: still, ben ferrucci, vacationing with his two daughters, has faith this holiday will be spared.

>> talked to the locals. they haven't got hit in 20 years around here. something about the cape. maybe we're lucky. when it gets close it likes to drift out to sea. hopefully it's not going to be any different this year.

>> reporter: earl is also already causing problems for weekend travelers, brian. amtrak suspended train service between new york and boston until tomorrow morning.

>> all right, peter alexander on