Residents in the Bahamas and Turks and Caicos braced themselves on Monday as Hurricane Erin, the first of the Atlantic season, passed nearby as a Category 4 storm, with winds of 225 kph.
The U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) said Erin could strengthen further as it sweeps by the islands and is expected to remain a major hurricane through midweek. While not forecast to make direct landfall, the storm’s size is fuelling dangerous seas and prompting evacuation orders on the U.S. East Coast.
AccuWeather meteorologist Alex Sosnowski described Erin as one of the fastest-strengthening storms on record, intensifying from a tropical storm to a Category 5 in just over a day. It briefly reached that level on Saturday before weakening slightly. This marks the fourth consecutive Atlantic season with at least one Category 5 hurricane.
In Turks and Caicos, public services were suspended and residents in exposed areas were told to be ready to evacuate the area. The Bahamas’ meteorology department warned of extremely rough seas, urging vessels to stay in port.
Kate Williamson, a Bahamian district administrator, said residents of the small island of Long Cay should move to the mainland. "People should finalise their preparations," she told local media.
Although Erin’s eye is expected to stay offshore, the NHC warned that tropical storm conditions and flooding could affect North Carolina’s Outer Banks by late Wednesday. Waves as high as six metres and dangerous rip currents are forecast.
Authorities in Dare and Hyde counties ordered evacuations for residents and tourists on the barrier islands of Hatteras and Ocracoke. The U.S. National Park Service said the Outer Banks usually attracts 2.7 million visitors each year.
Local innkeepers are taking different approaches. On Hatteras Island, hotel owner Holly Andrzejewski said she and her family would remain.
"Visitors are supposed to leave today and residents tomorrow, but we’re staying. We want to safeguard our property," she said.
On nearby Roanoke Island, innkeeper Lee Brickhouse said some guests were rescheduling. "We’re just holding our breath that the worst won’t happen," he told Reuters.
Iran said it destroyed a U.S. naval drone at the entrance to the Strait of Hormuz, while Washington announced sanctions targeting Iran-backed Katai...
Ukrainian drone strikes killed two people in western Russia's Tula region overnight, the region's Governor ...
Algeria has ordered the closure of its airspace to all civilian and military aircraft registered in the United ...
Four people were killed, including a child, in Ukrainian strikes on the Russian port city of Novorossiysk overnight, according to the governor of the Krasnodar region. Ukraine's drone forces commander, Robert Brovdi, said Russian military ships were destroyed in the attacks.
Overnight Iranian strikes on an air base in Jordan damaged multiple U.S. aircraft and left one without a wing, American media reported. Meanwhile, explosions were heard across parts of southern Iran according to local media reports.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) said on Wednesday they attacked two U.S. vessels and eight oil tankers in the Persian Gulf, calling the strikes a response to a U.S. attack on five Iranian tankers.
Ukrainian forces struck a Russian oil refinery in Siberia and a seaport in Dagestan in the past 24 hours, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said. He will meet Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney on Thursday to discuss air defences for Ukraine over winter.
Nobel laureate Geoffrey Hinton has warned against rushing to develop artificial superintelligence, arguing that scientists still do not know how to ensure systems more capable than humans remain safe and under control.
August 2026 tied as the hottest month ever recorded globally, pushing average temperatures above the critical 1.5°C threshold as extreme weather swept across several regions, the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service said.
Increasingly intense wildfires and heat waves are threatening global efforts to improve air quality and protect public health, the United Nations’ weather agency has warned.
Vast flocks of storks passed through Türkiye and the Bosporus this week as part of their annual autumn migration from European breeding grounds toward Africa and the Middle East.
China's coastal areas and southern regions are preparing for days of intense precipitation, with tens of thousands of people evacuated as Typhoon Narra tracks inland and another storm churns toward the country's eastern seaboard.
A wildfire in Croatia driven by strong winds descended on the tourist town of Omis overnight, engulfing houses, forcing about 1,000 people to evacuate to safety and injuring dozens, fire brigade and health officials said on Friday.
You can download the AnewZ application from Play Store and the App Store.
What is your opinion on this topic?
Leave the first comment