Thousands of people were evacuated off parts of North Carolina's Outer Banks amid the threat of a storm surge. Meanwhile, beaches remained off limits along the East Coast as dangerous waves and rip currents slammed shorelines.

Hurricane Erin is nearing the North Carolina coast, and its far-reaching effects are already causing rip currents and bigger waves along East Coast beaches.

As Hurricane Erin pelted North Carolina’s barrier islands with strong winds and waves this week, it destroyed many nests of threatened sea turtles, burying the eggs deep in sand or washing them out to sea.

Erin made a turn to the northeast and was finally moving away from the United States as a weakened Category 1 hurricane, according to the National Hurricane Center. The storm passed as close as about 200 miles from the North Carolina coast.

As Hurricane Erin churned off the North Carolina coast this week, its powerful waves destroyed most of the remaining sea turtle nests on Emerald Isle, dealing a blow to what had been shaping up as a successful nesting season.