More than 50,000 utility customers were without power in Puerto Rico as the hurricane battered the Caribbean, bringing heavy rain, powerful wind and sizable waves to Puerto Rico and the Virgin Island...

Hurricane Erin is forecast to move hundreds of miles offshore from the islands but the massive storm is still sending waves 20 feet (6 meters) or greater crashing over vulnerable sand dunes.

Coastal flooding in North Carolina is expected to begin Tuesday.

Hurricane Erin remains a Category 4 storm, forecast to bring life-threatening surf and rip currents across the U.S. East Coast this week.

Erin is expected to produce life-threatening surf and rip currents to the Atlantic coast from Florida to Canada.

Erin’s outer bands pelted parts of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands with heavy rains and tropical-storm winds during the day Sunday.

Hurricane Erin has been downgraded to a Category 3 hurricane.

Hurricane Erin exploded in strength and became a major storm in Atlantic waters just north of the Caribbean on Saturday, rapidly powering up from a tropical storm in a single day.

It was a rare Category 5 for a time Saturday before becoming a Category 4, churning through the Atlantic Ocean north of the Caribbean.