Hurricane Erin is marching north, lashing North Carolina's Outer Banks with rough waves and coastal flooding, and bringing a threat of dangerous waves and potentially deadly rip currents to the East Coast.

The National Weather Service is strongly urging beachgoers to stay out of the water in coming days in New Jersey and Delaware as Hurricane Erin churns up dangerous rip currents off coast.

More than 2,000 people were evacuated by ferry from Ocracoke Island, part of the Outer Banks, according to the state governor’s office

Some beaches in the Delaware Valley have prohibited swimming as a precaution as Hurricane Erin moves closer to the East Coast.

As a Navy veteran, Tom Ellis had seen more-impressive waves on the open seas — but not on the ocean in the popular barrier island town of Ocean City that he and his wife Pat call home. Standing on the music pier Thursday morning listening to the percussive sounds of white caps stirred by Hurricane Erin crashing on pilings and storm drain pipes,