Given the threats from Hurricane Erin, authorities announced mandatory evacuations in the Outer Banks of North Carolina on Monday, while forecasters warned that the major storm could affect the East Coast of the United States.

Meteorologists say that even though the monster storm is expected to remain offshore after lashing parts of the Caribbean with rain and wind on Monday, strengthening swells are causing rip currents to increase.

The National Hurricane Center (NHC) warns that Erin is likely to remain a major and dangerous hurricane through the middle of this week, which is why Dare County, North Carolina, is under a state of emergency, as the storm could generate dangerous rip currents and flood roads with waves as high as 15 feet.

Erin formed as a tropical storm on August 11 and has fluctuated in intensity since becoming the first hurricane of the season on Friday. Atlantic 2025. The storm reached Category 5 status with peak winds of 160 mph on Aug. 16 after undergoing extremely rapid intensification, according to Climate Central analysis. For now, forecasters are confident Erin will turn northward and move away from the eastern U.S., but it is still expected to generate wild surf and tropical-force winds along coastal islands, said Dave Roberts of the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami. This is the first time Ocracoke has been evacuated since Hurricane Dorian struck in 2019, leaving behind the largest damage in the island's recorded history.

Tommy Hutcherson, owner of the community's only grocery store, said the island has largely recovered. He's optimistic that this storm won't be as destructive. "But you never know. I felt the same way with Dorian, and it really hit us," he said.