Hurricane Erin is now a Category 5 storm, the highest on the class, rapidly intensifying overnight into early Saturday morning as it threatens the Leeward Islands and Puerto Rico, then will move along the U.

Hurricane Erin rapidly intensified into a ‘catastrophic’ Category 5 storm over the open Atlantic Ocean on Saturday. The storm achieved its scale-topping status just 24 hours after it first grew into a hurricane, and it maintained peak intensity for about nine hours.