Tropical Storm and Storm Surge Watches have been issued for portions of North Carolina’s Outer Banks as extremely dangerous Hurricane Erin continues to barrel across the Atlantic as a major Category 4 hurricane.

Most of the tourists have left Ocracoke Island, and the surfers are watching closely as deadly rip currents lurk below the waves.

By Tuesday morning, Erin had lost some strength from previous days and dropped to a Category 2 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 110 mph (175 kph), the National Hurricane Center in Miami said.

Hurricane Erin is causing evacuations in North Carolina. Here's a look at the latest forecast and spaghetti models.

A weather alert was issued by the NWS Newport/Morehead City NC on Monday at 2:51 p.m. for strong thunderstorms until 3:30 p.m. The alert is for Mainland Hyde as well as Tyrrell and Beaufort counties.

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. While forecasters remain confident the center of the monster storm will remain far offshore,