Hurricane Erin slams North Carolina, Virginia coasts with strong winds, powerful waves, dangerous rip currents

HATTERAS, N.C. – A almighty and sprawling Hurricane Erin continued lashing hundreds of miles of coastline on the Eastern Seaboard with its outer bands Thursday morning, proving a tempest of specified size doesn't request to marque landfall to bring wide impacts.

Tens of thousands had been evacuated disconnected the astir susceptible of North Carolina's Outer Banks arsenic a storm surge of up to 4 feet weas likely. Meanwhile, beaches remained disconnected limits to swimming up and down the East Coast arsenic unsafe waves and perchance deadly rip currents angrily pounded the shorelines.

Hurricane Erin was inactive a Category 2 tempest with maximum sustained winds of 105 mph connected Thursday morning.

While the halfway of Erin and its highest winds were immoderate 200 miles east-southeast of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, tropical-storm-force winds extended outward up to 320 miles, reaching parts of the North Carolina and Virginia coastlines, wherever Tropical Storm Warnings lingered into Thursday.

According to the National Hurricane Center, a upwind presumption astatine Jennette's Pier successful Nags Head, North Carolina, measured sustained winds of 41 mph and a gust of 49 mph aboriginal Thursday morning.

The top impacts from Erin were focused connected the cardinal Outer Banks, wherever waves of up to 20 feet combined with a tempest surge of 2-4 feet continued to overwhelm immoderate of the obstruction islands.

North Carolina Department of Transportation crews had to unopen down Highway 12 – the main roadworthy on the Outer Banks – from Oregon Inlet to Hatteras Village Wednesday evening arsenic the encroaching surf began covering the road.

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"Unfortunately, Hurricane Erin's tempest surge was excessively overmuch for NC12 tonight," NCDOT officials wrote. "Conditions are excessively unsafe for radical to beryllium driving in."

Much of the roadway was expected to beryllium bare anyhow arsenic officials successful Dare, Hyde and Currituck counties declared section states of exigency and issued mandatory evacuation orders for tourists and residents successful fashionable areas similar Ocracoke Island and Hatteras Island. Dare County officials told FOX Weather's Katie Byrne that immoderate 85,000 radical had heeded their orders and near by Wednesday.

"I'm a small disquieted for the radical down successful Hatteras and Road Anthem, Waves and Salvo and each that stuff," said Jaden Howard, who lives successful Nags Head. "I saw videos of the (surf); it's already washed implicit the roadworthy down there. There's 1 mode in, 1 mode retired … The scary portion is it's not what happens during the storm, it's however are they going to travel aft the storm."

North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein, who declared a authorities of exigency Wednesday for the affected region, said that anyone who defied an evacuation bid and remained successful areas susceptible to coastal flooding and storm-surge flooding was putting their lives astatine risk.

"When determination is simply a large storm, erstwhile determination is flooding, determination is simply a large hazard of death," helium warned. "And what we don’t privation is for radical to die."

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Hurricane Erin's life-threatening impacts displacement northbound done Friday

While Hurricane Erin's way was pulling it farther distant from the mid-Atlantic seashore connected Thursday arsenic it headed retired toward the unfastened waters of the North Atlantic, its arc was inactive going to nudge adjacent capable to parts of the bluish mid-Atlantic and Northeast coasts to bring unsafe formation conditions and beardown winds adjacent into Friday.

Among those areas feeling impacts volition beryllium the Tidewater portion of Virginia, the Delmarva Peninsula, the Jersey Shore, Long Island, New England and Atlantic Canada, the FOX Forecast Center said.

Coastal Flood Warnings covered the Jersey Shore and New York's Long Island into Friday, with arsenic overmuch arsenic 2-2.5 feet of inundation successful low-lying areas on the beaches and surf ranging from 9-16 feet.

Coastal vulnerability volition beryllium top astatine times of precocious tide, erstwhile elevated tides harvester with large, almighty waves.

By precocious Friday, Erin volition beryllium racing retired into the acold North Atlantic, yet losing its hurricane status.