Dare County, a small coastal county nearly surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean in North Carolina, declared a state of emergency Sunday as forecasters announced that Category 3 storm Hurricane Erin is expected to continue intensifying.
The county—which includes Roanoke Island, a peninsula jutting off the mainland of the state, and a long, thin coastal strip of islands in the Atlantic Ocean connected by roads—isn’t likely to be directly hit by the storm but could still be impacted by it, officials said.
“While Hurricane Erin is expected to stay well off our coast, the system will continue to increase in size and is forecast to bring life-threatening impacts to the Dare County coastline,” officials said in a statement announcing the state of emergency….