Island communities off the coast of North Carolina are bracing for flooding ahead of the year’s first Atlantic hurricane, Hurricane Erin .

Although forecasters are confident that the storm won’t make direct landfall in the United States, authorities on a few islands along North Carolina’s Outer Banks issued evacuation orders and warned that some roads could be swamped by waves of 15 feet (4.6 meters).

By Monday night the storm’s top sustained winds had dropped to 130 mph (210 kph) but it’s still a major, dangerous hurricane.

Tropical storm warnings were in effect for the southeast Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami.

Here is what to know about Hurricane Erin.

Storm surge, high winds expected along North Carolina’s coast

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