By Asiye Latife Yilmaz
ISTANBUL (AA) - Hurricane Erin intensified into a powerful Category 5 storm over the Atlantic Ocean on Saturday, according to the US National Hurricane Center (NHC).
Erin went from a Category 1 to a Category 5 hurricane in just over 24 hours, making it one of the fastest intensifying Atlantic storms on record and possibly the quickest to reach such strength before September.
It is not expected to make direct landfall, moving north of Puerto Rico before turning north-northeast into the open Atlantic between the US East Coast and Bermuda this week while growing much larger.
The NHC has warned that the storm will generate dangerous surf and rip currents along the beaches of the Bahamas, much of the US East Coast and Atlantic Canada.
Hurricane Erin became the first hurricane of the 2025 Atlantic season on Friday.