Hurricane Erin, the first Atlantic hurricane of 2025, underwent explosive rapid intensification last weekend, vaulting from a tropical storm to a Category 5 cyclone with 160 mph winds within roughly 24 hours, U.S. National Hurricane Center data show. The storm weakened but restrengthened to Category 4 status early Monday and has since grown into an unusually large system, with tropical-storm-force winds extending up to 320 miles from its eye. By late Thursday morning, Erin was a Category 2 hurricane packing 105 mph winds about 205 miles east-southeast of Cape Hatteras while tracking north-northeast between the U.S. East Coast and Bermuda. North Carolina Governor Josh Stein declared a state of emergency as Dare and Hyde counties ordered mandatory evacuations for Hatteras and Ocracoke islands, moving more than 2,200 residents and visitors off the barrier islands. Erin’s outer bands flooded stretches of Highway 12, sent surf under stilted homes and generated sustained winds of up to 70 mph along the Outer Banks. The National Hurricane Center warned of a 2- to 4-foot storm surge and 15- to 20-foot breakers along parts of the Mid-Atlantic shoreline; a NOAA buoy east of Cape Hatteras recorded a 45-foot wave. Life-threatening rip currents and beach erosion have closed beaches and cancelled ferry services from Florida to New England. Erin is expected to curve east and become post-tropical by the weekend, but hazardous surf will linger along the U.S. coast for several days.