Residents in the Bahamas and Turks and Caicos braced on Monday for Hurricane Erin, a dangerous category 4 storm and the first of the Atlantic season, after it strengthened at the weekend while sweeping past Caribbean islands.
While Erin is not on track to make direct landfall and has not yet caused major damage, its growing size and strength are threatening rough seas and have prompted some evacuation orders in parts of North Carolina, on the US east coast.
“Erin's already large size and intensity are acting like a giant plunger on the sea surface,” AccuWeather senior meteorologist Alex Sosnowski said in a report.
Sosnowski said Erin was among the fastest-strengthening storms on record after it intensified from a tropical storm to a category 5 hurricane, the highest level of the Saffir-Simpson scale, in just more than 27 hours.
It makes 2025 the fourth Atlantic season in a row with at least one category 5 storm.
The US National Hurricane Centre (NHC) said Erin, now a category 4 storm, was likely to maintain its force as a dangerous major hurricane through the middle of the week, but avoid contact with Bermuda and the US coast.
As of early Tuesday, the storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 210km/h as it passed east of the Bahamas.
The Air Force Reserve and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration hurricane hunters were investigating the system, the NHC said.
The storm's strength fluctuated at the weekend, rising on Saturday to category 5 before dropping back to category 4 late on Sunday.
It is the fifth named storm of the 2025 Atlantic season and the first to reach hurricane status. The last Atlantic storm to reach category 5 intensity was Hurricane Milton in October last year.
In Turks and Caicos, an overseas British territory, authorities suspended public services on its largest island and told residents in vulnerable areas to pack in case of evacuation.
The Bahamas' meteorology department said the islands' southeast, as well as Turks and Caicos, were experiencing tropical storm conditions, and warned that boats should not go out to sea until the end of the week.
“The seas could become extremely rough and dangerous during the swells,” it said.
Kate Williamson, a Bahamian southeastern district administrator, told local media that the small population living on the 21km2 island of Long Cay should move to the mainland.
Even though Erin's eye was forecast to stay well offshore, tropical storm conditions and coastal flooding were possible in North Carolina's Outer Banks, beginning late on Wednesday, the NHC said. Erin could also produce life-threatening surf and rip currents along much of the US east coast.
A tropical storm watch has been issued from Beaufort Inlet to Duck, North Carolina, including Pamlico Sound, while a storm surge watch is in effect for Cape Lookout to Duck, North Carolina, the forecaster said.
A storm surge watch means there is a possibility of life-threatening inundation from rising water moving inland from the coastline during the next 48 hours.
Evacuation orders have been issued for parts of two North Carolina coastal counties, with forecasters predicting waves up to 6.1m and dangerous rip currents on Wednesday and Thursday. Two counties — Dare and Hyde — ordered tourists and residents to leave the flood-prone barrier islands of Hatteras and Ocracoke.
While the narrow islands have just a few hundred year-round residents, about 2.7-million tourists flock to the Outer Banks each year, mostly during the summer, according to the US National Park Service.
County officials warned anyone who might consider staying put during the storm that they should not count on getting any help from authorities, due to inaccessible roads.
At the Atlantic Inn on Hatteras Island, owner Holly Andrzejewski said that she, her husband and a few employees were going to ride out the storm and keep a watch on their 10-bedroom inn.
“Visitors are supposed to leave today,” she told Reuters by telephone on Monday, “and residents are supposed to leave tomorrow but we're staying. We want to safeguard our property.”
On nearby Roanoke Island, also in Dare County, no evacuation orders had been given as of late Monday, but that could change, said innkeeper Lee Brickhouse of the Roanoke Inn.
“Some guests are rescheduling, and we're just holding our breath that the worst won't happen,” Brickhouse said.
Reuters
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