Hurricane Erin is forcing evacuations on North Carolina’s Outer Banks as it churns in the Atlantic where high winds and heavy rain are pelting the Turks and Caicos Islands and parts of the Bahamas.

Hurricane Erin brings swells to Florida. It's ideal for surfing but dangerous for beachgoers who see blue skies, but don't realize the dangers.

Forecasters are confident it will curl north and away from the eastern U.S., but tropical storm and surge watches were issued for much of North Carolina’s Outer Banks.

Hurricane Erin underwent rapid intensification to become a Category 5 storm in just hours. It has since weakened to a Category 4 status.

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.

Erin’s surf and storm surge could cause erosion along sections of the Florida and East Coast and shapes up as potentially worse for North Carolina’s barrier islands, which are under mandatory evacuation orders ahead of the four feet of storm surge and 20-foot offshore waves Erin is expected to bring.

Erin intensified rapidly during the early hours of Saturday. It went from being a tropical storm on Friday morning, with maximum sustained winds of 70 mph, to a category 5 hurricane by 11 a.m. on Saturday,

Erin has strengthened into a hurricane as it approaches Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, bringing heavy rains that could cause flooding and landslides.