Thursday Afternoon Erin Update: Coastlines Keep Getting Battered As Storm Begins To Move Away

Hurricane Erin well off the East Coast this afternoon.
It's still huge in size

Hurricane Erin has been doing its dirty work from a distance, as expected. 

It has stayed more than 200 miles offshore of North Carolina on its closest approach earlier today. It's now heading further away, heading northeast out to sea.   

At 5 p.m. Hurricane Erin was about 370 miles northeast of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina and booking it northeastward. Top winds were 100 mph, but a weakening trend has started. 

Even so, tides, storm surges and battering waves are continuing along the East Coast. We've been talking about the storm's immense size, and that's what is driving coastal residents batty from Miami to St. John's, Newfoundland. 

The problem isn't going away soon. 

In a number of areas along the East Coast some of the worst surges and waves will hit with this evening's high tide. 

Tropical storm and storm surge warnings were still in effect this afternoon in North Carolina. Coastal flood warnings are in effect until Saturday in New Jersey, with the highest tide of them all expected this evening

Tides at Cape May, New Jersey and Lewes, Delaware are forecast to be the highest since an intense winter nor'easter in 2016, Texas meteorologist and hurricane expert Matt Lanza said,

All the way up into New England, coastal flood, high surf and wind advisories are flying through tomorrow at least. In addition to the rough water, winds in places like Block Island, Nantucket and Provincetown could gust to 50 mph. 

Basically all beaches along the U.S. East Coast are closed to swimming because the waves and rip currents are too dangerous. We don't know when they will all reopen. It depends on when the seas calm down. 

The process might be slow. Even as Erin departs, a new tropical system seems to want to form hot on the hurricane's heels. The new storm will not be nearly as strong or as huge as Erin, but it will probably keep seas agitated all the way to the East Coast. 

The epicenter of the East Coast Erin chaos was - as everybody anticipated - Cape Hatteras/The Outer Banks of North Carolina.  The only way in or out is Route 12 and that shut down  because of water, deep sand washed onto the road and debris, according to Dare County, North Carolina officials.

I haven't seen news yet that the two houses most vulnerable to collapsing into the sea at Rodanthe, North Carolina have actually done so, but the event is still ongoing. Media reports this afternoon described the houses as "on the verge of collapse."

There's also lots of images of flooded streets, and waves eroding dunes or blasting beneath houses perched on pilings. 

The winds weren't too bad out on Cape Hatteras, all things considered. The highest gusts at Hatteras Mitchell Field at 43 mph. Only 0.03 inches of rain fell there. A U.S. Coast Guard station in Hatteras reported a gust of 53 mph. 

Lanza, the Texas meteorologists, also found an interesting and dangerous effect of Hurricane Erin up in Canada. It's super dry in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. 

High pressure on the northwest flank of hurricanes usually has very dry air and that's the case up in Atlantic Canada. The contrast between that high pressure and offshore Erin is producing gusty winds up there, so now the fire danger is quite high. 

Even here in the Green Mountain State, that same dry high pressure, the recent lack of rain and northeast breezes created in part by distance Erin have created yet another day of high fire danger in Vermont.