(Rodanthe) Hurricane Erin Struck the Outer Banks of North Carolina on Thursday, causing strong winds and waves that flooded part of the main highway and overwhelmed houses by the sea, while the monster storm slowly started to move away from the east coast.
Meteorologists provided that the storm would reach its peak on Thursday and that it could regain strength and become a major, category 3 or more hurricane. However, the hurricane should not touch the ground along the east coast before moving further towards the sea.
Tropical storm conditions were in force on certain parts of the Outer Banks and the Côte de la Virginia, said the National Hurricane Center, established in Miami. In Bermuda, residents and tourists were asked to stay out of the water, an agitated sea being expected until Friday.
While the exterior bands ofErin Flated the Outer Banks, the water spilled on the main road connecting the barrier islands and on a few houses on stilts perched precariously above the beach. On Wednesday evening, the authorities had closed road 12 on Hatteras Island, while the swell intensified and the waves rose. The road remained closed on Thursday. The connection between the island of Ocracoke and its traveler terminal was cut.
The authorities provided that the strongest waves at high cup would cut the villages and dwellings of the Outer Banks and would cause potentially fatal ripping of Florida to New England.
Photo Allen G. Breed, Associated Press
A man fishing while the waves of the hurricane Erin crash on the coast of Nags Head, in North Carolina, August 21, 2025.
Reckless bathers
Beaches were closed to swimming on Wednesday and Thursday in New York, and others in New Jersey, Maryland and Delaware were temporarily prohibited. Moderate and generalized coastal floods were planned in the low areas of Long Island and certain parts of New York.
Off Massachusetts, the island of Nantucket could experience waves of more than three meters this week. But the biggest threat persisted along the Outer Banks, where long -standing residents did not seem too worried.
“I remember taking canoes in front of my home to go to school, so I don’t think it’s so serious,” said Jacob Throne, who lives on Hatteras Island and works in surf stores.
Despite the closure of the beaches elsewhere, some bathers continued to ignore the warnings. The rescuers rescued more than a dozen people taken in ripping currents on Tuesday in Wrightsville Beach, in North Carolina, one day after the rescue of more than 80 people.
Photo Maria Alejandra Cardona, Reuters
A red “prohibited” warning flag floats before the hurricane approach Erinon the beaches of Kitty Hawk, in North Carolina, in the United States, on August 20, 2025.
Bob Oravec, meteorologist in the national weather service, said that even if you think you can manage a current of tearing, it is not without danger.
“We can be vigilant as much as we want,” he said. It can still be dangerous. »»
Risk of floods
The combination of strong winds and enormous waves estimated at around 6.1 meters could cause coastal floods in many coastal communities, warned the Northern Carolina authorities.
“The dangerous conditions can be felt far from the eyes, especially with a system as large asErin “Warned Will Ray, director of state emergency management.
Dozens of beach houses, already damaged by chronic erosion and protective dunes, could be threatened, said David Hallac, a superintendent of Cape Hatteras National Seashore.
Most residents have decided to stay on the spot despite the evacuations ordered from the Hatteras and Ocracoke Islands.
“We would probably not stay if the storm arrived directly on us,” said Rob Temple, a cruise organizer on the sailboat on Ocracoke.
Its main concern was whether the main road will be swept away by waters and if tourists and delivery trucks could be cut off from the thin strip of low islands, more and more vulnerable to storm waves.
Erin has become an unusually large and disturbing system, with “tropical storm” forces that extend over 800 kilometers, about the distance between New York and Pittsburgh.
The Hurricane Center indicated that the hurricane was still category 2 Thursday morning, with maximum sustained winds of around 165 km/h. Erin was about 330 kilometers in the east-south-east of Cap Hatteras and moved to the North-North-East at 28 km/h.
The Hurricane Center also monitored two tropical disturbances off the Atlantic, likely to turn into storms baptized in the coming days. With thousands of kilometers of hot ocean water, so -called “Cape Verdean” hurricanes are among the most dangerous that threaten North America.
Climatologists claim that the Hurricane of the Atlantic are now much more likely to intensify quickly and to become powerful and catastrophic storms, fueled by the warming of the oceans.
