Category 4 storm; Outer Banks evacuations

The couple left on the afternoon of Sunday, hours before mandatory evacuations were issued for the islands of Ocracoke and Hatteras. Ferries off Ocracoke were already packed, and traffic on roads leading off the islands delayed the journey back home by at least two hours for Himebaugh and his girlfriend.

“There was a steady stream of people trying to get off the islands,” he said.

Erin is huge – and getting larger

Erin is a huge storm and is expected to grow larger. As of Monday morning, its wind field was some 397 miles in diameter. In addition, Erin is creating seas of 10 feet or more across an area roughly 500 miles in diameter.

Erin ranks around the 80th percentile in terms of storm sizes of major hurricanes in the past couple of decades, John Cangialosi wrote in the National Hurricane Center’s 5 a.m. ET discussion. Erin’s wind field is forecast to grow over the next few days, as a cycle of eyewall replacements continues.

Some of the largest hurricanes on record include 2012’s enormous Hurricane Sandy, which was among the largest known Atlantic hurricanes with a wind field spanning approximately 1,100 miles. Hurricane Floyd in 1999 was also quite large, with a diameter of 580 miles.

– Doyle Rice

Two counties in North Carolina declared states of emergency and issued mandatory evacuation orders for parts of the Outer Banks, a string of low-lying islands in the Atlantic Ocean dotted with quaint villages and fishing towns.

Officials for Dare and Hyde counties said Hurricane Erin is likely to cause major flooding, making it impossible to drive on Highway 12, which runs along the islands. Officials issued a mandatory evacuation for visitors in the islands of Ocracoke and Hatteras; mandatory orders for residents were set to take effect Tuesday.

“Dangerous waves, 20+ feet, will likely inundate and destroy protective dune structures along the highway,” said a Hyde County news release. “Life-threatening swimming and surfing conditions are expected.”

The statement said “it is extremely likely” Hyde County emergency services won’t be available if Highway 12 is washed over by heavy waves. “Please take this warning seriously, especially if you have medical issues or are likely to need special care,” the county said.

Furthermore, the National Weather Service advised residents on the Outer Banks to consider moving their cars to higher ground.

Erin’s brief flirtation with Category 5 winds over the weekend made it the 11th Category 5 hurricane recorded in the Atlantic since 2016. That is 11 in just nine years, according to University of Oklahoma student and hurricane mapmaker Michael Ferragamo.

That’s the largest amount of Category 5 hurricanes recorded in a nine-year timeframe in the hurricane database (since 1851), he said.

– Doyle Rice

Erin formed into a hurricane from a tropical storm on Friday. The following day, the storm quickly intensified into a Category 5 hurricane with sustained minimum winds of 160 mph before it lost momentum and was downgraded to a Category 3.

Over the weekend, the storm lashed Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, causing tens of thousands of power outages, flight cancellations, and closures across both islands. No deaths were reported, and crews have restored power to most of the homes and businesses that experienced outages.

Erin has since begun a new period of intensification, which could end Tuesday as it encounters wind shear, though forecasters say it will remain a major hurricane.

Hurricane season will be a busy one, experts say

Dr. Michael Brennan, Director of the National Hurricane Center, said he expected a busy hurricane season and urged people to begin to prepare.

Hurricane Erin is expected to take a path familiar to many as the massive storm moves northward parallel to the United States coast.

Dozens of hurricanes have made a similar trek in recent years, testing the nerves of millions who wait to see if the storms are destined to make any sharp left turns or wobbles toward the coast. Even when they don’t brush the coast or make landfall, such storms can be deadly and cause millions of dollars of damage.

Many lives have been lost during hurricanes that remained well offshore but created rough surf or deceptive conditions that can disguise hazardous rip currents. Over 10 years, about 10 to 15% of all deaths in tropical storms and hurricanes were attributed to rip currents, according to the hurricane center.

Read more: Powerful Hurricane Erin could mimic damage from earlier hurricanes that stayed offshore

Hurricane Erin’s rainbands lashed Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands with heavy rainfall over the weekend, resulting in power outages and temporary closures.

None of the islands saw major impacts from the storm, but in Puerto Rico, over 150,000 homes and businesses lost power, most of which have been restored, according to LUMA Energy.

“Today we should be overcoming the effects of the winds and rain brought by Hurricane Erin, which thank God, did not have major impacts in Puerto Rico,” Gov. Jenniffer González said at a briefing Sunday, adding that schools and government offices were expected to open the following day.

Over the weekend, nearly the entire island of St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands was without electricity, though workers managed to restore power to most locations within hours, local officials said.

The Atlantic hurricane season officially began on June 1 and lasts through the end of November.

The Atlantic basin includes the Atlantic Ocean, the Caribbean Sea, and the Gulf of America, formerly known as the Gulf of Mexico. Based on a 30-year climate period from 1991 to 2020, the average Atlantic hurricane season has 14 named storms, seven hurricanes, and three major hurricanes, the National Hurricane Center said.

Active hurricane weather typically peaks between mid-August and mid-October.