Much of North Carolina’s Outer Banks region is under a tropical storm watch with Hurricane Erin expected to skirt the area Wednesday through Thursday, according to the National Hurricane Center.

Forecasters say the monster storm will turn away from the eastern U.S. and won’t make landfall. But they predict it will churn up dangerous rip currents.

On North Carolina’s Outer Banks, barrier islands that stretch over 175 miles, coastal flooding was expected to begin Tuesday and continue through Thursday. Two of the four counties on the Outer