Two days after Hurricane Erin arrived on the NC coast in the Atlantic, state officials are beginning to reopen roads closed from the storm’s flooding. According to the North Carolina Department of Transportation,

Hurricane Erin has weakened to a Category 1 storm after lashing North Carolina's Outer Banks with rough waves and coastal flooding, and bringing a threat of dangerous waves and potentially deadly rip currents to the East Coast.

As Hurricane Erin pelted North Carolina’s barrier islands with strong winds and waves this week, it destroyed many nests of threatened sea turtle, burying the eggs deep in sand or washing them out to sea.

Hurricane Erin’s core missed the U.S., but the cyclone led to flooded roadways and eroded dunes. Coastal flooding was reported in North Carolina, Virginia, Delaware, New Jersey, and New York.

As Hurricane Erin churned off the North Carolina coast this week, its powerful waves destroyed most of the remaining sea turtle nests on Emerald Isle, dealing a blow to what had been shaping up as a successful nesting season.

The National Hurricane Center warned that roads in the low-lying barrier islands will become impassable, with waves of 15 to 20 feet crashing ashore.

Hurricane Erin's effects have triggered state-of-emergency declarations in New Jersey and North Carolina as the storm system moves along the East Coast.