Tracking Hurricane Erin, the first named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, which weakened to a Category 3 storm early Sunday.

MIAMI (AP) — A stronger and bigger Hurricane Erin pelted parts of the Caribbean and was forecast to create dangerous surf and rip currents along the U.S. East Coast this week.

While the category 4 storm is not expected to make landfall on the U.S. east coast, it will have an impact nonetheless. Dangerous high surf and rip currents are expected from Florida to New England throughout the week.

Mandatory evacuation orders are in effect in parts of North Carolina as the US East Coast braces for life-threatening rip currents from Hurricane Erin.

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 ramped up once again to a category 4 storm early Monday as it blew past Puerto Rico, prompting evacuations in South Carolina’s Outer Banks, and promising to bring deadly rip tides

The storm, still driving dangerous, 125 mph winds, was centered about 310 miles northwest of San Juan, Puerto Rico, at around 8 p.m. ET on Sunday, the hurricane center said. Just a day earlier, Erin's sustained winds had reached 160 mph. A mandatory ...

Most of Erin’s intensification occurred during a 12- to 15-hour window overnight, according to Dan Pydynowski, a meteorologist at AccuWeather. By 5 p.m. Friday, Erin’s winds had remained only 75 mph.