The Weather Channel passes along its latest Earl forecast:

Thank goodness this "monster" will pass just east of the U.S. coast.

There should be some power outages and even scattered wind damage over parts of eastern North Carolina and the Del-Mar-VA peninsula. Earl could easily hold on as a cat 2 storm by the time it makes it to New England by late Friday. Power outages and some wind damage likely over parts of southeastern Massachusetts and the Islands. Earl should pass just southeast of Nantucket Island, but any deviation slightly westward could make conditions much worse in these areas.

New York City should be on the outer fringe of the storm with some rain and occasional wind gusts Friday afternoon and evening. It could be a little worse around Boston Friday evening with bands of heavy rain and 20-30 mph winds (with higher gusts) possible. Atlantic Canada will have to deal with Earl this weekend!