Hurricane Erin has weakened to a Category 1 storm Friday.
As the storm distances itself from the United States, it’s not yet time to relax: The enormous hurricane continues to agitate the Atlantic Ocean, maintaining hazardous conditions across more than 1,000 miles of the East Coast.
This week, Hurricane Erin has significantly disrupted coastal locales—particularly North Carolina’s Outer Banks—even without directly hitting land. The storm has generated perilous rip currents, leading to numerous rescues and causing water and sand to sweep over coastal roads from the Southeast to Massachusetts. Through at least Friday, Erin may continue to drive the ocean onto shorelines.
On Wednesday night, the hurricane approached closer to U.S. territory, coming within 200 miles of the Outer Banks. It resulted in severe coastal flooding, eroding beaches and closing sections of the highway that connects the barrier islands.
Hurricane Erin has weakened to a Category 1 storm Friday.
Erin’s northeast turn away from the US began early Thursday and it was accelerating away from the coast as of Friday morning.
Here’s what to expect from Erin next and what mark it’s already made.
Coastal flood threats aren’t over as dangerous seas expand
Erin is a Category 1 hurricane tracking northeast, away from the East Coast.
By Thursday morning, Erin’s tropical storm-force winds spanned nearly 575 miles from one side to the other, making it larger than 90% of tropical systems that have traversed a similar area of the Atlantic at comparable strength, as per the National Hurricane Center. By Friday morning, the storm’s reach had expanded even more.
Late Thursday, all tropical storm and storm surge warnings for the U.S. were lifted. Erin brought tropical storm-force wind gusts ranging from 40 to 50 mph to much of the Outer Banks early Thursday, with some gusts reaching 45 mph in coastal Virginia and Maryland. However, a tropical storm warning is still active for Bermuda.
As Erin progressed northward, the hurricane, combined with high tide, propelled flood waters into coastal regions from South Carolina all the way up to New Jersey, New York, and Massachusetts.
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy declared a state of emergency Thursday afternoon before tidal flooding prompted several road closures and water rescues in Atlantic City and Wildwood.
Delaware Gov. Matt Meyer said the state’s Emergency Operations Center has been activated in response to flooding. “Crews are staged and ready-but we need you to do your part. Stay off the beaches tonight and keep clear of flood-prone roads,” Meyer said in a social media post Thursday night.
The rip current risk also remains high through Friday for most of the East Coast. An elevated risk will likely persist at least through the weekend.
More than 70 people were rescued from rip currents in North Carolina this week, before Erin’s closest pass.
“Some of these rips are pulling six to eight people out at a time,” Wrightsville Beach ocean rescue director Sam Proffitt told CNN, describing the conditions as “very strong” and “dangerous.” Proffitt noted the volume of water moving and funneling out is so intense, it “really doesn’t matter how good of a swimmer you are.”
Many popular beaches up and down the East Coast – including in North Carolina, Maryland, Virginia, Delaware, New York and New Jersey – have restricted swimming this week as a result.
North Carolina bore the brunt of Erin
North Carolina remains under a state of emergency after Erin sent large waves crashing into the coastline – impacting seaside homes and businesses – and spurred significant coastal flooding in its Outer Banks Wednesday.
Evacuations were ordered ahead of the hurricane for parts of the Outer Banks, including the Hatteras and Ocracoke islands. The North Carolina Ferry System evacuated over 2,200 people and 1,100 cars from Ocracoke Island on Wednesday alone.
Officials had warned earlier in the week that the region’s Highway 12 – the slim, scenic stretch of road connecting the barrier islands – could become completely inaccessible. They were correct.
Highway 12 was closed as of Thursday morning after sand, water and debris covered sections of the roadway overnight. The force of the hurricane-whipped ocean breached and flattened sand dunes designed to protect the roadway in parts of Hatteras and Ocracoke, according to the North Carolina Department of Transportation.
Crews are working to clear the highway, but the transportation department had no estimate on when it would reopen as of Thursday afternoon.
On Friday, North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein will travel to Dare County, where Hatteras Island is located, to assess the damage Erin caused, according to a Thursday news release.
Will Erin have a successor?
Erin will lose steam as it heads for the northern Atlantic and enters more hostile atmospheric conditions this weekend and could be a tropical storm by Sunday – a far cry from the violent Category 5 hurricane it was for a time last weekend.
Erin became one of the fastest rapidly intensifying storms in Atlantic history after it strengthened from a Category 1 to a Category 5 in just 24 hours. Hurricanes are rapidly intensifying more frequently as the oceans and atmosphere warm in a world polluted by fossil fuels.
Odds are Erin won’t be the last rapidly intensifying Atlantic hurricane of the season – last year had nine.
The next few days could see more tropical systems develop in Erin’s wake.
An area of showers and thunderstorms near the Caribbean’s Leeward Islands has a high chance of forming into at least a tropical depression this weekend, according to the NHC. Where it goes from there isn’t clear, but early indications are it may take a curve similar to Erin.
Another area of stormy weather over the open tropical Atlantic has a medium chance to develop into a short-lived tropical depression by the end of the week.
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