Hurricane Erin has battered North Carolina’s Outer Banks with strong winds and waves that flooded part of the main highway and surged under beachfront homes.

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

North Carolina expects coastal flooding from massive waves, tropical-storm-force winds and tidal and storm surges for much of the state shoreline, especially the Outer Banks, as well as life-threatening rip currents for most of the week, Stein said, adding, "No one should be in the ocean."

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.

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.

Hurricane Erin is tracking northwest between the U.S. East Coast and Bermuda, bringing dangerous surf and life-threatening rip currents to Florida and the Carolinas through midweek.