RODANTHE, N.C. (AP) — Hurricane Erin began strengthening again Wednesday while creeping toward the mid-Atlantic coast and churning up menacing waves that have closed beaches from the Carolinas to New York City.
Forecasters expect the storm to peak over the next 48 hours and say it could re-intensify into a major hurricane by Wednesday night.
While Erin is unlikely to make landfall along the East Coast before turning farther out to sea, authorities expect its large swells will cut off roads to villages and vacation homes on North Carolina's Outer Banks and whip up life-threatening rip currents from Florida to New England.
New York City closed its beaches to swimming on Wednesday and Thursday. Some beaches in New Jersey, Maryland and Delaware also will be temporarily off-limits.
Off Massachusetts, Nantucket Island could see waves of more than 10 feet (3 meters) later this week. But the biggest threat remained along the Outer Banks.
Despite the beach closures, some swimmers were continuing to ignore the warnings. Rescuers saved more than a dozen people caught in rip currents Tuesday at Wrightsville Beach in North Carolina -- a day after more than 80 people were rescued.
Bob Oravec, the lead National Weather Service forecaster in College Park, Maryland, said even if someone thinks they know how to handle a rip current, it’s still not safe in the current conditions.
“You can be aware all you want,” he said. “It can still be dangerous.”
A combination of fierce winds and huge waves — estimated to be about 20 feet (6.1 meters) in height — could cause coastal flooding in many beachfront communities, North Carolina officials warned on Wednesday.
“Regardless of the track of the center of the storm, dangerous conditions can be felt far from the eye, especially with a system as large as Erin,” said Will Ray, the state’s emergency management director.
Dozens of beach homes already worn down from chronic beach erosion and the loss of protective dunes could be at risk, said David Hallac, superintendent of the Cape Hatteras National Seashore.
The National Hurricane Center is also watching two tropical disturbances to the east of Erin that could develop into named cyclones. With thousands of miles of warm ocean water, hurricanes known as Cape Verde storms are some of the most dangerous that threaten North America.
Water from the Atlantic already was washing onto the main route through the Outer Banks on Wednesday, and some sections are likely to be impassable during high tide later in the evening.
Authorities warned that time was running out to leave, but most residents decided to stay despite evacuations ordered on Hatteras and Ocracoke Islands.
“We probably wouldn't stay if it was coming directly at us,” said Rob Temple, who operates sailboat cruises on Ocracoke.
His biggest concern was whether the main route will be washed out, and if tourists and delivery trucks will be cut off from the thin stretch of low-lying barrier islands that are increasingly vulnerable to storm surges.
Erin has become an unusually large and deceptively worrisome storm, with its tropical storm winds covering 500 miles (800 kilometers) from edge to edge — roughly the distances from New York City to Pittsburgh.
Erin remained a strong Category 2 hurricane on Wednesday with maximum sustained winds around 110 mph (180 kph), the National Hurricane Center said. It was about 365 miles (590 kilometers) south-southeast of North Carolina’s Cape Hatteras.
Tropical storm warnings were issued for North Carolina and Virginia, while in Bermuda the government warned residents and tourists to stay out of the water, as rough seas are expected through Friday.
Climate scientists say Atlantic hurricanes are now much more likely to rapidly intensify into powerful and catastrophic storms fueled by warmer oceans.
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Seewer reported from Toledo, Ohio. Associated Press journalists Jeffrey Collins in Columbia, South Carolina; Gary Robertson in Raleigh, North Carolina; Ben Finley in Norfolk, and Julie Walker in New York contributed.
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