The 5 AM advisory on Tuesday shows that Erin continues to weaken, but it is still a major hurricane. Life-threatening surf and rip currents across the East Coast of the United States this week, as Erin passes off the coast.

Hurricane Erin is forcing evacuations on North Carolina’s Outer Banks as it threatens to whip up wild waves and tropical force winds.

Hurricane Erin threatens the East Coast with severe surf and winds, and evacuations have been ordered for parts of North Carolina. Here are the latest updates.

As rip tides from Hurricane Erin create dangerous conditions along the North Carolina coast, many residents and visitors have evacuated the Outer Banks, and local officials have warned people to stay away from the beaches.

Much of North Carolina’s Outer Banks region is under a tropical storm watch with Hurricane Erin expected to skirt the area Wednesday through Thursday, according to the National Hurricane Center.

Outer bands from Hurricane Erin could lash the North Carolina coastline with tropical-storm-force winds and heavy rain as it passes by the Outer Banks, where a Tropical Storm Watch and a Storm Surge Watch were issued.

Two more tropical systems trail Hurricane Erin, which is following a projected course that brushes past the East Coast without making landfall.

Hurricane Erin was a Category 4 storm with 130 mph winds on Monday night as it passed to the east of the Bahamas. The forecast track keeps the center of the storm well away from the U.S. East Coast this week, but tropical storm and storm surge watches have been issued for the North Carolina Outer Banks. National Hurricane Center

Evacuation orders were issued in North Carolina Tuesday as Hurricane Erin continued to swirl upward across the Atlantic Ocean and two disturbances followed behind it.

Hurricane Erin forced tourists to cut their vacations short on North Carolina’s Outer Banks even though the monster storm is expected to stay offshore after lashing part of the Caribbean with rain and wind on Monday.

Erin is the first hurricane to develop over the Atlantic this year, and meteorologists are closely tracking its path and forecast.