Hurricane Erin forecast to create dangerous surf, high winds along US coast

MIAMI -- Hurricane Erin strengthened again Monday arsenic it began pelting portion of the Caribbean with rainfall and upwind earlier it's expected to make unsafe surf and rip currents on the U.S. East Coast this week.

The monster tempest intensified to a Category 4 with 130 mph (215 kph) maximum sustained winds aboriginal Monday portion it started to lash the Turks and Caicos Islands and the southeast Bahamas, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center successful Miami.

Forecasters are assured that Erin volition crook northeast and distant from the eastbound U.S., but it's inactive expected to churn up unsafe waves and rip currents and could bring tropical unit winds to North Carolina's Outer Banks, said Dave Roberts of the National Hurricane Center.

A reddish emblem warns of unsafe waves connected an bare formation successful San Juan, Puerto Rico, aft Hurricane Erin passed by adjacent the land connected Sunday, Aug. 17, 2025.

AP Photo/Alejandro Granadillo

Evacuations were ordered opening Monday connected Hatteras Island connected the Outer Banks, the bladed agelong of low-lying obstruction islands that juts acold into the Atlantic.

There are concerns that respective days of dense surf, precocious winds and waves could lavation retired parts of the main road moving on the obstruction islands, the National Weather Service said.

But determination were nary signs of panic connected Hatteras Island, said Angela Tawes, a co-owner of Conner's Supermarket. "It's truthful beauteous outside. It's hard for radical to consciousness similar there's a hurricane coming erstwhile it's truthful gorgeous," she said.

Erin, the year's archetypal Atlantic hurricane, reached a unsafe Category 5 presumption Saturday with 160 mph (260 kph) winds earlier weakening. While Erin is expected to stay a large, large hurricane into midweek and interaction coastal areas, it isn't forecast to marque nonstop landfall.

"You're dealing with a large hurricane. The strength is fluctuating. It's a unsafe hurricane successful immoderate event," the hurricane center's Richard Pasch said.

Early Monday, the tempest was located astir 115 miles (190 kilometers) north-northeast of Grand Turk Island and astir 890 miles (1,430 kilometers) south-southeast of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. It was moving northwest astatine 13 mph (20 kph).

The Bahamas authorities issued a tropical tempest ticker for the cardinal Bahamas, portion a informing remained successful effect for the Turks and Caicos Islands and southeast Bahamas, the hurricane halfway said.

Erin's outer bands pelted parts of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands with dense rains and tropical-storm winds connected Sunday.

Scientists person linked the accelerated intensification of hurricanes successful the Atlantic to clime change. Global warming is causing the ambiance to clasp much h2o vapor and is spiking water temperatures, and warmer waters springiness hurricanes substance to unleash much rainfall and fortify much quickly.