Hurricane Erin forced tourists to cut their vacations short on North Carolina’s Outer Banks even though the monster storm is expected to stay offshore after lashing part of the Caribbean with rain and wind on Monday.

Evacuations were ordered on a couple of barrier islands along the Carolina shore as authorities warned the storm could churn up dangerous rip currents and swamp roads with waves of 15 feet.

Tourists and residents waited for hours in a line of cars Monday at Ocracoke Island’s ferry dock — the only way to leave other than by plane.

“We definitely thought twice,” said Seth Brotherton, of Catfish, North Carolina, whose weeklong fishing trip ended abruptly. “But they said ‘mandatory’ and that pretty much means, ‘get out of here.'”

Forecasters are confident that Erin will turn n

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