(Miami) Hurricane Erin Forced tourists to interrupt their holidays on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, even if the monster storm should remain offshore after having swept part of the Caribbean on Monday with rain and wind.
Evacuations have been ordered on two barrier islands along the Caribbean coast, the authorities warning that the storm could cause dangerous ruling currents and submerge the waves of 4.6 meters.
Monday, tourists and residents waited for hours in a line of cars at the beetle on the island of Ocracoke – the only way to leave other than by plane.
Image Department of Transports de Caroline du Nord, provided by Associated Press
In this image taken by the camera of the Caroline Du Nord transport department, cars are in line to be evacuated by crossing island Hatteras in anticipation of the passage ofErinAugust 18, 2025.
Meteorologists are convinced thatErin will go north and move away from the east of the United States, but it is expected to strengthen in the coming days and causes violent waves and tropical winds along the American coastal islands, Dave Roberts said of the National Center of Hurricane in the United States in Miami.
The storm intensified on Monday to reach category 4 with maximum sustained winds of 225 km/h, while it struck the Turkish and Caican Islands and the Southeast of the Bahamas, according to the center.
The government authorities of the Turkish-and-Caican islands have announced the suspension of all the services out of three of their islands and ordered residents to stay at home.
On Monday afternoon, the storm was about 220 kilometers north of the island of Grande-Turque and about 1370 kilometers south-east of Cap Hatteras, in North Carolina.
On the Outer Banks in North Carolina, coastal floods were expected from Tuesday and until Thursday.
The evacuations, which started on Monday on the Hatteras and Ocracoke Islands, took place in the midst of a tourist season on this thin strip of low-altitude-barrier islands which advances far in the Atlantic Ocean and are increasingly vulnerable to storm waves.
A year ago, the hurricane Ernestoremained hundreds of kilometers off the east coast of the United States, had caused significant waves and swells that had caused coastal damage.
This time, we feared that several days of strong waves, strong winds and surfs take portions of the main highway, said the National Meteorological Service of the United States. Some roads could be impassable for several days, the authorities warned.
Scientists have established a link between the rapid intensification of hurricanes in the Atlantic and climate change. Global warming leads to an increase in water vapor retention in the atmosphere and an increase in ocean temperatures. Water warming feeds hurricanes, which pour more rain and strengthen faster.
Erinthe first hurricane of the year in the Atlantic reached a dangerous category 5 on Saturday, with winds of 260 km/h, before weakening. He should remain a hurricane of high intensity until mid -week.
“We are facing a major hurricane. Its fluctuated intensity. He is a dangerous hurricane in all cases, ”insisted Richard Pasch, from the National Hurricane Center.
Bermuda will undergo the most serious threat fromErin Thursday evening, said Phil Rogers, director of the Bermuda meteorological service. Until then, the waters could go up to 7.3 meters.
“Surfers, swimmers and boaters must resist the temptation to go out. The waters will be very dangerous and lives will be at risk, ”warned the interim minister of national security, Jache Adams.
The ends ofErin Has struck parts of Puerto Rico on Sunday and virgin islands with heavy rain and tropical storm winds, depriving electricity of thousands of people.
The journalists of the Associated Press Safiyah Riddle, in Montgomery, Alabama, and Julie Walker, in New York, contributed to this dispatch.
