The descriptions of the storm were ominous and pulsing with urgency. Hurricane Erin was churning, cranking and lashing its way up the Atlantic Ocean, edging toward Category 3 territory, forecasters cautioned. It would be a “big wind maker, a big wave maker,” as an anchor put it on the Weather Channel.
Erin is also a hurricane with virtually zero chance of making landfall anywhere. But more than a few people were watching closely anyway.
At the Lucky 12 Tavern in Nags Head, N.C., the Weather Channel blared “Large and dangerous hurricane.” Tomás Houser, 29, said his parents in Virginia had peppered him all week with text messages, asking him what was happening.
Nothing to worry about, he replied.
It’s the first storm to reach hurricane strength, he said, “so people are like, ‘Oh no!’”
He, however, was of the opinion that many of his neighbors in the Outer Banks — hundreds of miles from Erin’s path but not entirely immune from its repercussions — were more affected by the anxiety stirred by the storm than the storm itself.
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