The Hurricane “Erin” is strengthened in category 4 as the Bahamas approaches

Hurricane Erin Reinforced again on Sunday evening, in category 4, as the Bahamas approaches, in the Caribbean already affected by strong winds and heavy rains with a risk of floods and landslides, according to American weather services.

In Puerto Rico, US territory bruised and devastated in 2017 by the hurricane Mariamore than 150,000 inhabitants are deprived of current due to Erin.

The first hurricane of the season above the North Atlantic was strengthened on Saturday until reaching the maximum category 5, qualified as “catastrophic” by the American Hurricane Center (NHC), before the wind speed decreases and that it is demoted in category 3.

But Sunday evening around 11 p.m., the NHC wrote thatErin “reinforced again as a category 4 hurricane”, warning of “waves and potentially deadly currents on the East Coast” in the United States and the Bermuda.

It was about 205 kilometers from the Grand-Turk Island, in the Turks-and-Caicas, blowing winds measured at 215 km/h maximum.

“The eye ofErin should go to the east and northeast “of this archipelago, and to the” south-eastern Bahamas on the night of Sunday to Monday, “the NHC still warned in its latest bulletin.

Intensification rapide

Earlier on Saturday, the winds had reached 255 km/h.

“Intensity fluctuations are expected in the coming days due to changes in the internal structure of the system. Erin becomes a larger system, “said the NHC, an organization specializing in hurricanes based in Miami which, like other American weather services, has undergone budget cuts imposed by the administration of Donald Trump.

Hurricane Erin had reached the maximum level of the Saffir-Simpson scale just over 24 hours after being classified in category 1-a rapid intensification that scientists are increasingly associating with global warming.

It could pour up to 200 millimeters of rain in certain isolated areas, according to the NHC, warning against “important floods, as well as landslides or mudslides”.

In Porto Rico, populated by more than 3.2 million inhabitants, “nearly 155,000 customers are deprived of current,” the local electricity company Luma announced on X.

In Luquillo, a coastal city of Porto Rico, surfers took advantage of the waves while the walkers strolled on the beach under a covered sky, on Saturday, before the arrival of the storm, according to images broadcast by AFP.

The swells generated by Erin affect part of the northern islands of small Antilles, the American and British virgin islands, from Puerto Rico, the island of Hispaniola, which Haiti and the Dominican Republic share, as well as the Turkish and Caican Islands.

They will then extend at the start of the week at the Bahamas, the Bermuda and the East and Southeast Coast of the United States.

If Erin should remain far from the American coast, he could nevertheless lead to important waves and coastal erosion, especially in Northern Carolina, in the Southeast.

The Hurricane season, which stretches from the beginning of June to the end of November, should this year be more intense than normal, according to forecasts by the American weather authorities.

In 2024, the region was marked by several very powerful and murderous storms, including Hurgagan Hélène who left more than 200 people in the south-east of the United States.

By warming the seas, climate change makes it more likely the rapid intensification of storms and increases the risk of more powerful phenomena, according to scientists.