Rep. Greg Murphy to Newsmax: People Need to Be Wary of Hurricane Erin

Rep. Greg Murphy, R-N.C. (AP)

By    |   Wednesday, 20 August 2025 10:48 AM EDT ET

Although Hurricane Erin is not expected to make landfall, Rep. Greg Murphy, R-N.C., said Wednesday on Newsmax that people still need to "listen and take caution" when it comes to the massive storm.

"It gets to be this time of year that people start looking at the television, looking at The Weather Channel a lot more, seeing what's going on, and so, it's a feeling of, hey, we've been through this before," Murphy told "Wake Up America." "But the problem with some of that is reluctance, reticence to actually do something about it. I mean, there was a mandatory evacuation out on Ocracoke and Hatteras islands. A lot of folks who say, 'Hey, my family's been through this for generations and generations. We're staying.' And while this particular storm may not do anything other than storm surge, it's kind of difficult to tell those people, 'Hey, look, you really need to take this seriously.'"

Murphy said that the storm will produce "a lot of overwash" on Highway 12, which connects the islands and peninsulas of the northern Outer Banks, as well as "significant erosion" and "significant damage."

"If people will just listen and take caution, I think everything will be OK," he said.

There is relief in North Carolina that Hurricane Erin is not forecast to come ashore, Murphy said, but "this is a huge storm" that will impact the state regardless.

"I think it's close to 400 miles wide and so, a lot of those outer bands still will rip up a lot of the tide," he said. "And then it's going to hit, I believe, close to Thursday morning at high tide, which makes it even worse. So yeah, this is going to be difficult. A lot of the beach that's on the beach right now is going to be out in the ocean when it's all done. There's going to be a lot of roads that are going to be hampered. … There's a place called Down East out in Carteret County, and there's a town called Sea Level, appropriately, because it's on sea level. A lot of that water rushes over, and so, this is going to be a big event. Hopefully not with human loss, et cetera, et cetera, but certainly property and structures will be damaged."

Hurricane Erin comes as the western part of North Carolina is still struggling to recover from last year's Hurricane Helene. When asked about the progress of that recovery effort, Murphy said it's "going to be a long-term project."

"I believe it will really take a decade for western North Carolina to rebuild, because a lot of these things were private roads that got washed out completely and just getting access to one of these things is different," he said. "Just remember the difference between the eastern part of North Carolina and the western part is when we have a big hurricane event, we can park water. We have farms, we have a lot of flat lands that park water. … When you had the same rain event, if it comes down from a mountain, all of a sudden all of it comes down and the rivers just rise completely. And that strength of the currents just literally tear out things. And so, it's going to take a long time for people to be able to rebuild."

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Nicole Weatherholtz

Nicole Weatherholtz, a Newsmax general assignment reporter covers news, politics, and culture. She is a National Newspaper Association award-winning journalist.

© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.


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Although Hurricane Erin is not expected to make landfall, Rep. Greg Murphy, R-N.C., said Wednesday on Newsmax that people still need to "listen and take caution" when it comes to the massive storm.
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2025-48-20
Wednesday, 20 August 2025 10:48 AM
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