On Thursday, Hurricane Erin was several hundred miles off the coast of North Carolina and pushing storm surge and deadly rip currents toward the shore. Two other systems may form right behind.

Hurricane Erin, now a Category 2 hurricane, won't make landfall on the U.S. East Coast, but it will impact residents and visitors at North Carolina's Outer Banks.

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.

Multiple warnings were in effect along the East Coast on Wednesday, as officials warned of a "life-threatening" situation.

Erin is currently making its closest approach to our coast, which is about 200 miles ESE of Cape Hatteras. Impacts will peak today with the worst conditions expected along the OBX during today's high tide cycles. #HurricaneErin #ncwx Latest briefing: https://t.co/CAZ6pY0eg1 pic.twitter.com/xTHVV8G4y6

Simply put, today is the day that Hurricane Erin will do its worst along the U.S. East Coast. We're already see the large waves and coastal flooding in North Carolina's Outer Banks, but this large storm's trek northeast is also pushing ocean swells high onto beaches along New York's Fire Island and the Jersey Shore.

Beachfront property owners braced for the worst amid predictions of a storm surge of up to 4 feet and significant coastal erosion. Powerful waves of 15 to 20 feet are expected to slam beaches, especially in North Carolina, for 48 hours or more as the hurricane crawls northward offshore through at least Thursday.

As of 7 a.m. CDT Wednesday, the center of Category 2 Hurricane Erin was located about 400 miles south-southeast of Cape Hatteras, N.C., or 560 miles west-southwest of Bermuda, and was tracking to the north-northwest at 13 mph. Erin’s sustained winds were 100 mph, making it a Category 2 storm.

That simple fact is why Tropical Storm Erin, which is churning in the eastern Atlantic, is a concern for meteorologists and people living along the coast though thousands of miles away from American shores. As of morning Monday, Erin was approximately 280 ...