Hurricane Erin is moving closer to the U.S. coast at the start of the workweek. Strong wind and big waves will cause problems for our North Carolina beaches as summer vacations continue.

A powerful and sprawling Hurricane Erin continued lashing hundreds of miles of coastline along the Eastern Seaboard with its outer bands Thursday morning, proving a storm of such size doesn't need to make landfall to bring widespread impacts.

Meteorologists are closely tracking the projected path and forecast of Hurricane Erin, which is the first hurricane to develop over the Atlantic this year.

Hurricane Erin's path will keep its strongest winds offshore. However, this large storm will hammer the East Coast with coastal flooding and life-threatening rip currents through Friday. Here's the latest forecast.

Most of the tourists have left Ocracoke Island, and the surfers are watching closely as deadly rip currents lurk below the waves.