Beach warnings issued as Hurricane Erin nears the East Coast

By Judson Jones, Nazaneen Ghaffar and Eduardo Medina

Gov. Josh Stein of North Carolina said in a news conference Wednesday that water rescue teams and 200 National Guard troops have been positioned along the coast, hours before the outer bands of Hurricane Erin are forecast to bring dangerous swells and potentially heavy rain to the state before it turns out toward the open sea.

Even as the United States avoids a direct landfall from the storm, officials from Florida to Maine have urged people to stay out of the water, and some beaches have closed entirely because the threat of rip currents will make swimming dangerous for the rest of this week.

Here’s what you need to know.

— Around 10 a.m., Stein said that residents in the islands of Hatteras and Ocracoke, considered the most likely places to see dangerous swells and storm surge, still had a few hours to get on a ferry and evacuate. “We urge you to do that,” he said. “And if you have not evacuated, make sure you batten down the hatches.”

— Tropical storm conditions are also expected in Bermuda and along the Virginia coast Thursday, and tropical storm-force wind gusts are likely along portions of the remainder of the U.S. mid-Atlantic and southern New England coasts.

— Erin is the first hurricane of the Atlantic season. Forecasters at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration say they expect an above-average hurricane season, with up to 18 named storms in total by the time it ends in November. A typical season has 14 named storms.