Hurricane Erin updates: Storm weakens to Category 1, moves away from US coastline

Erin remains a Category 2 hurricane early Thursday with winds of 105 mph and tropical storm warnings are still in effect for the Outer Banks of North Carolina.

The storm is larger on Thursday compared to yesterday, with the wind field continuing to expand and fuel widespread destructive surf conditions and dangerous rip currents along the coastline. But the storm will begin to shift east.

Erin is now 210 miles east of Hatteras, North Carolina, and is starting to move away from the U.S. East Coast.

Erin is expected to continue turning east and speed away from the East Coast on Thursday into Friday.

-ABC News’ Kyle Reiman

Hurricane Erin's outer bands are now brushing North Carolina's Outer Banks and conditions are expected to continue to deteriorate through the night.

The region is just coming off high tide, so many ongoing coastal flooding issues will likely subside a bit heading into the region’s low tide around midnight. However, large and dangerous waves are likely to persist along the coast.

The next high tide for the Outer Banks will generally occur Thursday morning between 5:45 a.m. and 6:45 a.m., depending on the location, with intensifying coastal impacts.

-ABC News' Dan Peck

A portion of the highway that serves North Carolina's Outer Banks is closed due to impacts from Hurricane Erin, officials said.

North Carolina Highway 12 is now closed from Oregon Inlet to Hatteras Village, according to the North Carolina Department of Transportation.

"Unfortunately, Hurricane Erin's storm surge was too much for NC12 tonight," the department said. "Conditions are too unsafe for people to be driving in. If you come across any flood waters, turn around, don't drown."

Hurricane Erin may not make landfall, but it still could have devastating consequences for East Coast residents.

The first hurricane of the 2025 Atlantic season is forecast to cause rough surf, large waves and life-threatening rip currents for much of the East Coast despite churning northward several hundred miles offshore.

Average sea levels for many East Coast communities are now about a half foot higher today than they were just a few decades ago, climate scientists say, intensifying coastal erosion along the U.S. coastline.

Some of the biggest waves from Erin could occur in the evening during high tide, Kimberly McKenna, interim executive director of the Coastal Research Center at Stockton University in New Jersey, told ABC News. But states will have to "wait and see" just how harmful Erin is to the coasts, McKenna added.

Read more about Erin's potential impacts here.