National Hurricane Center Gives Update On Hurricane Erin As It Nears North Carolina

National Hurricane Center Director Dr. Michael Brennan provides an update on Hurricane Erin as it nears North Carolina.

Transcript

00:00This is Mike Brennan here at the National Hurricane Center just after 5 p.m. on Monday afternoon

00:04coming on with a quick update here on the latest on very dangerous Hurricane Aaron and we're going

00:09to focus in on some impacts that we're expecting along the North Carolina Outer Banks. This

00:13afternoon Aaron remains a very powerful Category 4 hurricane located about 815 miles south-southeast

00:18of Cape Hatteras. Still expecting a northward turn with the center of Aaron passing well

00:23offshore of North Carolina between North Carolina and Bermuda but the very large size of Aaron

00:28as it moves up here across the western Atlantic is going to result in some very dangerous

00:32conditions and so we're going to zoom in here and look and we've now issued a storm surge watch

00:36for portions of the North Carolina Outer Banks from Cape Lookout all the way up to Duck so that

00:42includes portions of like Cape Lookout National Seashore, Ocracoke Island, Hatteras Island, the rest

00:48of the Outer Banks portion of Dare County and in this area we could see or we are expecting to see

00:53storm surge inundation of two to four feet above ground level especially along the Outer Banks here

00:59where we're going to see that very destructive wave action start to begin as we move into late

01:03Tuesday really peaking overnight Wednesday into Thursday. This is going to be a very significant

01:08event we could see widespread inundation of coastal roads like North Carolina Highway 12,

01:13some submersion of vehicles, some structural damage and that ocean water is going to extend well

01:18inland in some places and cause some significant threats to life and property. There have been

01:23evacuations ordered on Ocracoke Island and Hatteras Island so please follow those evacuation orders if

01:29you've received them. We've also issued a tropical storm watch for much of that same area basically from

01:37Beaufort Inlet all the way up to Duck and that means those tropical storm conditions are going to be

01:42possible within those watch areas within about 48 hours again with a large wind field of Aaron as it

01:48passes off to the east and then just also a reminder that we're going to see a widespread dangerous

01:54surf and rip currents along much of the U.S. east coast beginning tomorrow all the way from Florida

02:00up to southern New England and those are going to continue throughout the week so please stay out of

02:05the water if it's not safe to get in. So come back to hurricanes.gov for the latest on air and throughout

02:09the week thanks for joining us. I'm Mike Brennan at the National Hurricane Center.