RODANTHE, N.C. — Strong winds and waves battered Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard and dangerous rip currents threatened from the Carolinas to New England as Erin was downgraded to a post-tropical cyclone.
The storm is expected to continue to produce life-threatening surf and rip currents for much of the weekend, including along the East Coast of the U.S. The National Hurricane Center in Miami reported Friday afternoon that Erin had weakened into a post-tropical cyclone, with maximum sustained winds of 90 mph and is continuing to track out to sea at roughly 30 mph.
Despite being twice the size of an average hurricane, Erin so far has managed to thread the needle through the Atlantic between the East Coast and several island nations, limiting its destructiveness.
Although damage assessments were still underway, the low-lying islands of North Carolina’s Outer Banks appeared to have dodged widespread trouble.
A tropical storm warning was lifted for Bermuda, where residents and tourists had been told to stay out of the water through Friday. Warnings along the coasts of North Carolina and Virginia were also discontinued.
Communities along the mid-Atlantic and southern New England coast could see tropical storm-force wind gusts through Friday, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami.
The National Weather Service issued coastal flood warnings for places as far north as the Mid-Atlantic and New England coasts, saying that some roads could be made impassable.
Beaches were closed to swimming Thursday in New York City, but more than a dozen surfers still rode waves at Rockaway Beach in Queens. Scott Klossner, who lives nearby, said conditions were great for experienced surfers.
“You wait all year round for these kinds of waves. It’s challenging, really hard to stay in one place, because there’s a heavy, heavy, heavy rip,” he said. “But this is what surfers want — a hurricane that comes but doesn’t destroy my house? I’ll take that.”
Erin has fluctuated in intensity since forming nearly a week ago but remained unusually large, stretching across more than 600 miles.
So-called Cape Verde hurricanes like Erin, which originate near those islands off the west coast of Africa, cross thousands of miles of warm ocean and are some of the most dangerous to North America.
Elsewhere in the tropics
Meanwhile, the National Hurricane Center is monitoring two other systems in the Atlantic, but none appear likely to be of significant threat.
Following the track of Hurricane Erin, a system of unorganized showers and thunderstorms is “very likely” to develop into a tropical storm this weekend, forecasters said. It is expected to move northwest, then north in the direction of Bermuda and will remain well off the U.S. East Coast.
As of 8 p.m. Friday, it had an 80% chance to develop in the next 48 hours, and a 90% chance to develop in the next seven days.
A tropical wave about midway between Africa and the Leeward Islands is moving west toward the Caribbean and could become a short-lived tropical depression over the weekend. As of 8 p.m. Friday, the National Hurricane Center gave it a 20% chance of developing into a tropical system in the next two days and a 30% chance in the next week.
This system is also moving into an area less conducive for development and isn’t likely to strengthen significantly, if at all.
A small low pressure system in the middle of the Atlantic that was being monitored early Friday has dissipated.
The next two weeks of hurricane season, which peaks in early September, are forecast to be relatively quiet, according to NOAA’s long-range tropical hazards outlook.
The next named storm would be Fernand.
Seewer reported from Toledo, Ohio. Associated Press journalists Tammy Webber in Fenton, Michigan; Jeffrey Collins in Columbia, South Carolina; Kathy McCormack in Concord, New Hampshire; Julie Walker in New York; and Leah Willingham in Boston contributed.
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