RICHMOND, Va. (AP) – The remnants of Tropical Storm Ernesto put a sloppy wet damper on the last big tourism weekend of the summer for many people, making a mess of some oceanfront hotels and leaving beaches and boardwalks less crowded than usual.

Ernesto was reduced to an area of rain over western New York state and the lower Great Lakes by Saturday afternoon, after drenching Virginia and North Carolina with up to a foot on its run up the East Coast.

It had caused flooding that forced hundreds of people out of their homes, and left more than a half-million homes and businesses without electricity Saturday in the mid-Atlantic states. At least four deaths were blamed on the storm in Virginia, plus one in North Carolina.

Hotels in Virginia Beach reported some last-minute cancelations Saturday as the storm apparently led many people to change their plans. Some who decided to tough it out faced oceanfront rooms with carpets soaked by wind-driven rain.

“I’ve never seen it this severe in all my years here,” said Jimmy Capps, manager of the Breakers Resort Inn. “Probably every oceanfront hotel in Virginia Beach has some wet carpet.”

Casino operators in Atlantic City, N.J., had no complaints. Harrah’s Entertainment spokeswoman Alyce Parker said all four of the company’s hotels – Harrah’s, Showboat, Bally’s Atlantic City and Caesars Atlantic City – were already booked for the weekend and Saturday’s wind and drizzle just kept people on the casino floors.

“People really aren’t on the beach,” Parker said.

Beach-goers were stymied on the south shore of New York state’s Long Island, where swimming was banned at most beaches Saturday because of rip currents. Waves up to 12 feet high caused severe beach erosion.

The storm forced most play at the U.S. Open in Queens to be postponed until Sunday, including matches involving Andy Roddick, Maria Sharapova and Andre Agassi.

In New Jersey, high winds and heavy rain also caused Monmouth Park to cancel its thoroughbred racing card Saturday.

Wind and rain delayed flights at John F. Kennedy and LaGuardia airports by up to three hours, said Steve Coleman, a spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

Flooding remained a problem in North Carolina, where the Northeast Cape Fear River was more than 5 feet above flood stage and not expected to crest until Sunday, the National Weather Service said.

“Right now, we’re just holding on,” said Terry Smith, a supervisor with Duplin County Emergency Medical Services.

Firefighters had already helped evacuate about 20 people from six houses near the river in Chinquapin. About 50 houses were threatened by the rising water, said David Miller, an EMS worker and a captain with the Chinquapin Volunteer Fire Department.

In Pennsylvania, a man drowned in a rain-swollen retention basin while trying to rescue his dog. Thomas V. Chipley, 45, of Telford, was sucked into a drainage pipe. The dog was injured but survived.

Virginia emergency officials said Ernesto’s heaviest rainfall and a tidal surge raked rural communities along Virginia’s side of the Chesapeake Bay.

Jeffrey Brown, 37, stayed with his wheelchair-bound father rather than evacuate St. George Island, which juts into the Potomac River where the river meets the Chesapeake Bay.

Three feet of water came into the home, he said.

“I didn’t sleep too well last night,” Brown said, looking haggard. “It was bad, real bad.”