Lifeguards and fire rescue crews in Hollywood Beach are on alert as red warning flags and safety signs go up, urging visitors to avoid the water altogether.

Powerful Hurricane Erin is expected to bring high seas, big rip currents, and rough surf as it moves between the United States and Bermuda.

South Florida is not forecast to see direct impacts from Hurricane Erin, but rip currents and surf up to 6 feet, especially along Palm Beach, are likely.

Hurricane Erin is moving east of the U.S. coast and will bring strong waves and rip currents to Florida's east coast – and it comes as the National Center is eyeing two more tropical waves in the Atlantic.

RODANTHE, N.C. (AP) — Hurricane Erin chugged slowly toward the eastern U.S. coast Tuesday, stirring up treacherous waves that already have forced dozens of beach rescues days before the biggest storm surges are expected.

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.

Hurricane Erin on Monday bulked back up, but then dropped back down, although still a major Category 3 storm as it moved near the Bahamas with an increasing wind field that prompted new tropical