A Coast Guard lifeboat crew operating off the coast of North Carolina were slammed by big waves lingering from Erin on Friday. Video showed the crew members getting doused with ocean water as their boat approached the massive waves.

Hurricane Erin passed to within about 250 miles of North Carolina’s Outer Banks Thursday morning at it closest point of approach to the U.S., with its extraordinarily large wind field bringing wind gusts as high as 49 mph to the coast and widespread areas of moderate to even major coastal flooding.

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.

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.

Ron Fisher captured this video at Atlantic Beach, North Carolina a few miles south of Fort Macon the evening of Hurricane Ern's approach. Swimmers are ordered to stay out of the water due to life-threatening rip currents.