Hurricane Erin is moving away from the U.S. coast. Surf and seas remain a problem for our North Carolina beaches as summer vacations continue.

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.

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

The hurricane passed by the Cape Fear region hundreds of miles offshore, delivering heavy surf to area beaches but little else.

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.

Hurricane Erin is entering the first stages of a post-tropical transition as it continues to move away from the eastern coast of the United States.

Hurricane Erin's effects have triggered state-of-emergency declarations in New Jersey and North Carolina as the storm system moves along the East Coast.