There's good news and bad news about Hurricane Erin, which rapidly intensified from a Category 1 to a Category 5 storm in just over 24 hours, making it one of the fastest-strengthening Atlantic hurricanes on record.
On the positive front, Erin is expected to avoid a direct hit on any land mass, but on the downside, it will cause rough ocean conditions across the western Atlantic and create rip currents along the U.S. East Coast.
Dare County in North Carolina has issued a local state of emergency and a mandatory evacuation order for Hatteras Island due to expected coastal flooding and ocean overwash. The Weather Channel says, "Erin will curl north, then northeastward between North Carolina and Bermuda and generally south of Atlantic Canada this week.
"Erin is expected to remain a formidably strong hurricane early this week with some fluctuations in intensity possible, weather channel forecasters added. "While wind shear is expected to cap off any further intensification by mid-week, Erin's large size means we can't yet rule out any tropical storm force gusts in outer rainbands later this week either for the Outer Banks of North Carolina or for Bermuda."
The storm has left 100,000 people without power in Puerto Rico and is expected to bring heavy rainfall to the Turks and Caicos and the eastern Bahamas, potentially leading to flash flooding and landslides.
Erin is the Atlantic's first major hurricane of the season and is one of only 43 Category 5 hurricanes on record in the Atlantic, highlighting the increasing extremes of a warming world and the trend of more rapidly.
ABC News reported that Erin will bring large waves reaching 6 feet to the East Coast, adding, "Waves over 6 feet are considered extremely dangerous for swimmers.
"By Wednesday, those waves could reach 8 to 12 feet in northern Florida and from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, up to the Outer Banks of North Carolina."