200 troops deployed to NC coast as conditions start to deteriorate from Hurricane Erin: Governor Josh Stein

[ad_1]

RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) – With Hurricane Erin looming off the North Carolina coast in the coming days, Governor Josh Stein addressed the state on Wednesday morning to provide key updates on the system that’s making its way north toward Outer Banks.

Erin continues to churn as a Category 2 hurricane toward the eastern U.S. on Wednesday, stirring up treacherous waves that already have led to dozens of water rescues and shut down beaches along the coastline.

“No one should be in the ocean,” Stein said. “We are anticipating coastal flooding from massive waves, tropical storm force winds, and tidal and storm surge for much of the state’s shoreline.”

Impassable roads, life-threatening rip currents

Will Ray, the state’s Director of Emergency Management, reiterated the storm is forecast to remain offshore—but pointed to the dangerous conditions it’s already creating hundreds of miles away.

“Hurricane Erin is already creating extremely dangerous and life-threatening rip currents for all of the North Carolina coast. We’ve seen a high number of rescues along the coast and you should avoid swimming anywhere along the North Carolina coast right now,” Ray said.

Roads are expected to become impassable in communities on the barrier island, especially the main corridor of Highway 12. Ray said on Tuesday, NC Emergency Management deployed three swift water rescue teams from N.C. Marine Patrol, N.C. Wildlife Resources, and a joint team made up of the Wake Forest Fire Department and the Knightdale Fire Department.

Stein’s briefing came one day after he issued a state of emergency ahead of Erin’s arrival.

Prior to the governor’s state of emergency, local states of emergency were declared in Dare and Hyde counties. Mandatory evacuations are also in place for Ocracoke and Hatteras islands.

Stein on State of Emergency Declaration

The severity and serious nature of Hurricane Erin are what led to Stein’s statewide state of emergency declaration on Tuesday, he said in the press briefing. It’s key purpose is that it “enables us to send critical resources from across the state and around the country to respond,” Stein said.

In addition to the resources Ray mentioned, the state has also activated a cross-agency storm response, which includes the Department of Public Safety, the Department of Transportation, the North Carolina National Guard, the State Highway Patrol, and many local partners.

“We’ve already pre-positioned three swift water rescue teams, 200 national guard troops to various locations along the coast, as well as boats, high-clearance vehicles and air craft,” Stein said. There are also some Chinook military helicopters from Georgia ready to transport food and water, if it becomes necessary.

Speaking to the assistance available at the federal level from FEMA, Stein said the state has had a good working relationship with the federal government for the past 11 months, since Hurricane Helene’s devastation in western North Carolina.

Even so, speaking to President Trump’s previous comments on wanting to end FEMA, Stein said “The federal government has not met the moment.”

Deteriorating Conditions

While forecasters remain confident the center of the monster storm will remain far offshore, the outer edges are likely to bring damaging tropical-force winds, large swells and life-threatening rip currents into Friday.

Rough ocean conditions have already been seen along the coast — at least 60 swimmers were rescued from rip currents Monday at Wrightsville Beach, near Wilmington.

Hurricane Erin is forecast to stay hundreds of miles offshore but is still sending waves 20 feet (6 meters) or greater crashing over vulnerable sand dunes on the islands.

Officials have ordered evacuations of Hatteras and Ocracoke islands even without a hurricane warning because that tiny ribbon of highway called N.C. 12 will likely be torn up and washed out in several places, isolating villages for days or weeks.

However, the biggest threat is along the barrier islands of North Carolina’s Outer Banks , where evacuations have been ordered.

According to the early Wednesday morning update from the National Hurricane Center, Erin has sustained winds of 100 miles per hour, with gusts reaching 120 miles per hour. The system is currently traveling north-northwest at 13 miles per hour.

The forecast track has seen little change, but still puts the storm about 240 miles off the North Carolina coast on Thursday.

On this current forecast path, the bulk of the impacts from Hurricane Erin will stay along the coast with simply clouds and “breezy” conditions in central North Carolina. The biggest impact on the coast will be big waves, coastal flooding and dangerous rip currents.

Erin has become an unusually large and deceptively worrisome storm, with its tropical storm winds stretching 230 miles (370 kilometers) from its core. Forecasters expect it will grow larger in size as it moves through the Atlantic and curls north.

Tropical storm and storm surge warnings have been issued for parts of the North Carolina coast in anticipation of Erin’s impacts of wind and storm surge.

— The Associated Press contributed to this report

[ad_2]

Keaton Eberly

Source link