Hurricane Erin picking up steam as it edges along the East Coast

RODANTHE, N.C. (AP) — Hurricane Erin began strengthening again Wednesday as it crept closer to the mid-Atlantic coast, its outer bands brushing North Carolina’s Outer Banks as beaches closed across much of the U.S. East Coast.

Forecasters expect the storm to peak going into Thursday and say it could intensify again as a major hurricane.

While Erin is unlikely to make landfall along the East Coast before turning farther out to sea, its outer edge is packing tropical force winds while approaching North Carolina’s Outer Banks.

Water began pouring onto the main route connecting the barrier islands and around a handful of stilted homes precariously perched above the beach. By Wednesday evening, officials had closed Highway 12 on Hatteras Island as surge increased and waves were growing higher, while Ocracoke Island's connection to its ferry terminal was cut off.

Authorities expect the largest swells during high tide will cut off villages and vacation homes on the Outer Banks and whip up life-threatening rip currents from Florida to New England.

New York City closed its beaches to swimming on Wednesday and Thursday. Some beaches in New Jersey, Maryland and Delaware also will be temporarily off-limits. The storm is expected to bring widespread, moderate coastal flooding to low-lying areas of Long Island and parts of New York City.

Off Massachusetts, Nantucket Island could see waves of more than 10 feet (3 meters) later this week. But the biggest threat remained along the Outer Banks where longtime residents didn't seem too concerned.

“I remember taking canoes out of my front yard to get to school, so I don’t think it’s gonna be that bad,” said Jacob Throne, who lives on Hatteras Island and works for surf shops.

Surfers flocked to the oceanfront in Virginia Beach, where Erin was supplying robust waves for the East Coast Surfing Championships and the kind of swells that many locals hadn’t seen in awhile.

“We’re notorious for not having waves,” said Henry Thompson, who competed in the open long board event. “Usually we get a surf competition and it gets canceled due to no waves or they just run it in really bad waves.”

The championships will pause Thursday when Erin blows directly off the Virginia coast. But Thompson said he’s expecting more hurricanes and good surfing in the coming months.

Despite beach closures elsewhere, some swimmers were continuing to ignore the warnings. Rescuers saved more than a dozen people caught in rip currents Tuesday at Wrightsville Beach in North Carolina — a day after more than 80 people were rescued.

Bob Oravec, a National Weather Service forecaster, said even if someone thinks they know how to handle a rip current, it’s still not safe.

“You can be aware all you want,” he said. “It can still be dangerous.”

A combination of fierce winds and huge waves — estimated to be about 20 feet (6.1 meters) — could cause coastal flooding in many beachfront communities, North Carolina officials warned on Wednesday.

“Dangerous conditions can be felt far from the eye, especially with a system as large as Erin,” said Will Ray, the state’s emergency management director.

Dozens of beach homes already worn down from chronic beach erosion and protective dunes could be at risk, said David Hallac, superintendent of the Cape Hatteras National Seashore.

The National Hurricane Center is also watching two tropical disturbances to the east of Erin that could develop into named cyclones. With thousands of miles of warm ocean water, hurricanes known as Cape Verde storms are some of the most dangerous that threaten North America.

In the Outer Banks, most residents decided to stay despite evacuations ordered on Hatteras and Ocracoke Islands.

“We probably wouldn't stay if it was coming directly at us,” said Rob Temple, who operates sailboat cruises on Ocracoke.

His biggest concern was whether the main route will be washed out, and if tourists and delivery trucks will be cut off from the thin stretch of low-lying islands that are increasingly vulnerable to storm surges.

Erin has become an unusually large and deceptively worrisome storm, with its tropical storm winds spreading across 500 miles (800 kilometers) — roughly the distances from New York City to Pittsburgh.

It remained a strong Category 2 hurricane on Wednesday with maximum sustained winds around 110 mph (180 kph), the National Hurricane Center said. Erin was about 215 miles (346 kilometers) southeast of North Carolina’s Cape Hatteras.

Tropical storm warnings were issued for North Carolina and Virginia, while in Bermuda residents and tourists were told to stay out of the water, as rough seas are expected through Friday.

Climate scientists say Atlantic hurricanes are now much more likely to rapidly intensify into powerful and catastrophic storms fueled by warmer oceans.

Seewer reported from Toledo, Ohio. Associated Press journalists Jeffrey Collins in Columbia, South Carolina; Gary Robertson in Raleigh, North Carolina; Ben Finley in Norfolk, Dave Collins in Hartford, Connecticut, and Julie Walker in New York contributed.

Waves from Hurricane Erin crash against the sandbagged pilings of a building in Buxton, N.C., on Wednesday, Aug. 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Allen G. Breed)

Sea water from Hurricane Erin surges under the Cape Hatteras Motel in Buxton, N.C., on Wednesday, Aug. 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Allen G. Breed)

Two houses sit out in the heavy surf as Hurricane Erin passes offshore at Rodanthe, N.C., on Tuesday, Aug. 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Allen G. Breed)

This image provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) shows Hurricane Erin on Wednesday, Aug. 20, 2025. (NOAA via AP)

People are seen in the water as waves from Hurricane Erin crash along beach in Duck, N.C., on Tuesday, Aug. 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

Three women walk the beach at sunrise as waves from Hurricane Erin crash ashore in Nags Head, N.C., on Wednesday, Aug. 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Allen G. Breed)

People walk along the beach as waves as red flags, indicating swimming is prohibited, are raised at the beach in Duck, N.C., Tuesday, Aug. 19, 2025, as precautions are taken ahead of Hurricane Erin. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

Red flags, indicating swimming is prohibited, are raised at the beach in Duck, N.C., Tuesday, Aug. 19, 2025, as precautions are taken ahead of Hurricane Erin. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

This GOES-19 GeoColor satellite image taken Tuesday, Aug. 19, 2025 at 1:20 p.m. EDT and provided by NOAA, shows Hurricane Erin churning slowly toward the eastern U.S. coast. (NOAA via AP)

As waves from Hurricane Erin crash and “No Swimming” flags flap in the breeze, people walk on the beach in Nags Head, N.C., on Tuesday, Aug. 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Allen G. Breed)

In this aerial image taken from video provided by WVEC-TV, homes along the Atlantic Coast in Dare County, N.C., are seen, Monday, Aug. 18, 2025, ahead of expected impacts from Hurricane Erin. (WVEC-TV via AP)

A federal appeals panel on Thursday reversed a lower court decision that released former Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil from an immigration jail, bringing the government one step closer to detaining and ultimately deporting the Palestinian activist.

The three-judge panel of the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals didn’t decide the key issue in Khalil’s case: whether the Trump administration’s effort to throw Khalil out of the U.S. over his campus activism and criticism of Israel is unconstitutional.

But in its 2-1 decision, the panel ruled a federal judge in New Jersey didn’t have jurisdiction to decide the matter at this time. Federal law requires the case to fully move through the immigration courts first, before Khalil can challenge the decision, they wrote.

“That scheme ensures that petitioners get just one bite at the apple — not zero or two,” the panel wrote. “But it also means that some petitioners, like Khalil, will have to wait to seek relief for allegedly unlawful government conduct.”

Thursday’s decision marked a major win for the Trump administration’s sweeping campaign to detain and deport noncitizens who joined protests against Israel.

Tricia McLaughlin, a Homeland Security Department spokesperson, called the ruling “a vindication of the rule of law.”

In a statement, she said the department will “work to enforce his lawful removal order” and encouraged Khalil to “self-deport now before he is arrested, deported, and never given a chance to return.”

It was not clear whether the government would seek to detain Khalil, a legal permanent resident, again while his legal challenges continue.

In a statement distributed by the American Civil Liberties Union, Khalil called the appeals ruling “deeply disappointing."

“The door may have been opened for potential re-detainment down the line, but it has not closed our commitment to Palestine and to justice and accountability," he said. "I will continue to fight, through every legal avenue and with every ounce of determination, until my rights, and the rights of others like me, are fully protected.”

Baher Azmy, one of Khalil's lawyers, said the ruling was “contrary to rulings of other federal courts."

“Our legal options are by no means concluded, and we will fight with every available avenue,” he said.

The ACLU said the Trump administration cannot lawfully re-detain Khalil until the order takes formal effect, which won't happen while he can still immediately appeal.

Khalil’s lawyers can request that the panel's decision be set aside and the matter reconsidered by a larger group of judges on the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals, or they can go to the U.S. Supreme Court.

An outspoken leader of the pro-Palestinian movement at Columbia, Khalil was arrested last March. He then spent three months detained in a Louisiana immigration jail, missing the birth of his first child.

Federal officials have accused Khalil of leading activities “aligned to Hamas,” though they have not presented evidence to support the claim and have not accused him of criminal conduct. They also accused Khalil, 31, of failing to disclose information on his green card application.

The government justified the arrest under a seldom-used statute that allows for the expulsion of noncitizens whose beliefs are deemed to pose a threat to U.S. foreign policy interests.

In June, a federal judge in New Jersey ruled that justification would likely be declared unconstitutional and ordered Khalil released.

President Donald Trump's administration appealed that ruling, arguing the deportation decision should fall to an immigration judge, rather than a federal court.

Khalil has dismissed the allegations as “baseless and ridiculous,” framing his arrest and detention as a “direct consequence of exercising my right to free speech as I advocated for a free Palestine and an end to the genocide in Gaza.”

New York City’s new mayor, Zohran Mamdani, said on social media Thursday that Khalil should remain free.

“Last year’s arrest of Mahmoud Khalil was more than just a chilling act of political repression, it was an attack on all of our constitutional rights,” Mamdani wrote on X. “Now, as the crackdown on pro-Palestinian free speech continues, Mahmoud is being threatened with rearrest. Mahmoud is free — and must remain free.”

Judge Arianna Freeman dissented Thursday, writing that her colleagues were holding Khalil to the wrong legal standard. Khalil, she wrote, is raising “now-or-never claims” that can be handled at the district court level, even though his immigration case isn't complete.

Both judges who ruled against Khalil, Thomas Hardiman and Stephanos Bibas, were Republican appointees. President George W. Bush appointed Hardiman to the 3rd Circuit, while Trump appointed Bibas. President Joe Biden, a Democrat, appointed Freeman.

The two-judge majority rejected Freeman's worry that their decision would leave Khalil with no remedy for unconstitutional immigration detention, even if he later can appeal.

“But our legal system routinely forces petitioners — even those with meritorious claims — to wait to raise their arguments," the judges wrote.

The decision comes as an appeals board in the immigration court system weighs a previous order that found Khalil could be deported to Algeria, where he maintains citizenship through a distant relative, or Syria, where he was born in a refugee camp to a Palestinian family.

His attorneys have said he faces mortal danger if forced to return to either country.

Associated Press writers Larry Neumeister and Anthony Izaguirre contributed to this story.

FILE - Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil holds a news conference outside Federal Court on Tuesday, Oct. 21, 2025 in Philadelphia (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)