WASHINGTON — weakened to a Category 3 hurricane on Sunday, its outer bands lashing the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico, as forecasters warned of a growing risk of life-threatening surf and rip currents along the U.S. Eastern seaboard during the week from what is expected to become a very large hurricane.

While Erin's maximum winds diminished Sunday, its overall size kept growing as forecasters issued tropical storm warnings for the Turks and Caicos Islands and the southeast Bahamas. The hurricane's outer bands pelted parts of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands with heavy rains and tropical-storm winds during the day.

The storm wasn't expected to directly hit the U.S. East Coast, but by doubling or tripling in size its impacts threatened the North Carolina Outer Banks, the thin, low stretc

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