Hurricane Erin battered North Carolina’s Outer Banks with strong winds and waves that flooded part of the main highway and surged under beachfront homes as the monster storm inched closer to the mid-Atlantic coast.

Meteorologists are closely tracking the projected path and forecast of Hurricane Erin, which is the first hurricane to develop over the Atlantic this year.

Hurricane Erin is tracking northwest between the U.S. East Coast and Bermuda, bringing dangerous surf and life-threatening rip currents to Florida and the Carolinas through midweek.