Crowds return after Earl misses NY

MONTAUK, N.Y. (AP) — Memories of hurricanes past kept gloating to a minimum after Hurricane Earl left Long Island untouched.

By Saturday, bright sunshine and crowds celebrating the summer season's finale in the Hamptons replaced several days of worrying about Earl.

Late Friday, Columbia University medical student Peter Einersen came to the eastern tip of Long Island and stood in a drizzle, complaining that he would have liked "to see something a little more ferocious."

Growing up in New York, he'd enjoyed watching tall waves before hurricanes but said that "post Katrina, it's hard to root for a hurricane anymore."

The old-timers in Montauk still remember the Hurricane of 1938 that virtually wiped out a budding tourist trade.