NORTH CAROLINA, USA — There have been over 50 water rescues along the Carolina beaches this week due to the swells of Hurricane Erin . Almost the entire east coast is under a high rip current risk through this week.

Over the past decade, rip currents have caused about 10% of U.S. fatalities from tropical storms and hurricanes.

Rip currents are fast, narrow channels of water that rush away from the beach. They form when waves pile water up at the shoreline, then gravity funnels it back out to sea through weak spots in sandbars or breaks between waves.

A hurricane more than 1,000 miles away can still send long-period swells across the ocean. When those swells arrive at beaches, they create rip currents that are deceptively strong even on a sunny day.

We’ve seen this before: in 2019, Hurr

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