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CAPE COD, Massachusetts (CNN) -- Hurricane Earl remained a Category 1 storm Friday afternoon with maximum sustained winds of 80 miles per hour, according to the 2 p.m. ET report from the National Hurricane Center.

It is on a course for the Northeast, but the "steadily weakening" storm may be below hurricane-level strength by the time it passes southern New England on Friday night, National Hurricane Center Director Bill Read said.

Some residents of New York and New England, however, are still bracing for a potential onslaught from the storm, which earlier lashed the North Carolina coastline with high winds and 35-foot waves.

Earl, according to the National Hurricane Center, was centered roughly 290 miles southwest of Nantucket, Massachusetts, as of 2 p.m. ET. It was moving north-northeast at 21 miles per hour. Storm warnings were in effect from Virginia to Nova Scotia. All warnings south of the North Carolina-Virginia border have been discontinued.

CNN meteorologist Reynolds Wolf said that the eye of the storm had collapsed. Earl "is starting to lose some of its structure," he said.

"It is a dying storm, but is still a force to be reckoned with."

Forecasters said that Eastern Long Island and Cape Cod appeared to be at greatest risk as the storm continued its northward trek. Portions of the mid-Atlantic were also facing potential fallout.

Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick warned of riptides, strong currents and tropical storm force winds around Cape Cod peaking between 8 p.m. ET Friday and 2 a.m. ET Saturday.

"We are well prepared," he said, with extra water supplies on Cape Cod, as well as extra power line repair crews and debris clearance teams on standby.

Sean O'Brien, an emergency planning coordinator from Cape Cod's Barnstable County, said on CNN's "American Morning" that emergency shelters had been opened in the area, and that local residents should expect tropical storm force winds.

"We will see power outages," he warned. "We have not seen anything like this since (Hurricane) Bob," which slammed Cape Cod in 1991.

The Barnstable County Sheriff's Office warned residents in low-lying and flood-prone areas to get out.

"In the morning, police and firefighters and our civilian response team will be going door to door to make sure they got the message," said Yarmouth Fire Chief Michael Walker. "We're telling people 'we really think you should leave. We think you may be at risk.'"

Ferry service to Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard was curtailed ahead of the storm.

Bill Wilkinson, supervisor of the town of Easthampton on Long Island, told CNN conditions could get "pretty treacherous" over the next 12 to 24 hours.

People need to "respect what's going on," he said.

The rougher the seas, the better for one fisherman in Montauk, New York, at the eastern tip of Long Island. Bob Nielsen, a lifelong resident, was fishing along the beach at 6:45 a.m. and said the fishing gets better during storms.

He said he caught five striped bass during his hour of early-morning fishing, though he had to toss them all back since none was larger than the required 28 inches.

Johnson Nordlinger and her husband, Mike, were busy securing a tree by their Montauk home after having purchased extra supplies.

"We have extra wood, extra charcoal," she told CNN. She said they had bought eight five-gallon jugs of water, and "we filled two giant coolers with ice, just in case."

The Oceanside Beach Resort, located along the beach in Montauk boarded up windows with a plank of wood, painted a bullseye on it and the phrase "Earl take your best shot"

Earlier, a relieved North Carolina Gov. Bev Perdue said her state had apparently "dodged the bullet" from Hurricane Earl. There had been no loss of life and there seemed to be minimal damage from the storm, she told CNN.

Perdue said, "We are all anxious to get property assessments from Dare County," where the storm surge drove water over state Highway 12, cutting off Cape Hatteras and the southern Outer Banks.

Southern North Carolina's beaches, she was quick to point out, "will be open for business this Labor Day weekend."

At Kill Devil Hills, CNN Meteorologist Rob Marciano said the rain was "like needles in the face" as the storm passed by.

He said waves continued to "churn like a washing machine" with the surf pounding the beaches.

Dare County officials said wind gusts of 70 mph had been recorded in the area.

"In multiple locations, waves have crashed over the tops of the dunes and are now flooding several portions of the main state highway (Hwy. 12) on both the north and south sides through the Outer Banks. This is all happening south of the area called the Oregon Inlet," CNN's David Mattingly reported from the community of Waves.

Ben McNeely from Charlotte, North Carolina, was riding the storm out in the community of Manteo.

"We're in the middle of the island," McNeely said. "Surf's up, waves are up. ... We're fully surrounded by water."

Ray Sturza, the mayor of Kill Devil Hills said his town was handling the onslaught of rain pretty well.

Sturza said streets in his town in North Carolina's Outer Banks were not as flooded as he thought they would be Friday morning.

Sturza estimated that as many as 200,000 tourists may have left the town ahead of the storm.

Officials in Dare County issued mandatory evacuation orders ahead of the storm for the coastal county, including the Outer Banks. Dare County schools and courts were closed Friday.

Conditions can "deteriorate rapidly," FEMA administrator Craig Fugate said, and people should not be lulled into thinking Earl is going to miss them.

Fugate urged those in New England, who may not be used to hurricane preparations, to find out what their community plan is and whether they are in an evacuation zone -- and to figure out where they would go if an evacuation order is issued.

Earl is expected to make a direct landfall over southern Nova Scotia on Saturday morning.

-- CNN's Susan Candiotti, Angela Fritz, Rick Vincent, Alan Silverleib, Allan Chernoff and Randy Harber contributed to this report.

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