AP Photo/Allen G. Breed

AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais

NOAA via AP

Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel via AP

AP Photo/Allen G. Breed

AP Photo/Allen G. Breed

AP Photo/Allen G. Breed ( 1 /7)

RODANTHE, N.C. (AP) — Hurricane Erin began strengthening again Wednesday while creeping closer to the mid-Atlantic coast and churning up menacing waves that have closed beaches from the Carolinas to New York City.

Forecasters expect the storm to peak going into Thursday and say it could re-intensify into a major hurricane .

While Erin is unlikely to make landfall along the East Coast before turning farther out to sea, its outer edge packing tropical force winds was approaching North Carolina’s Outer Banks.

Water began pouring onto the main route connecting the barrier islands and around a

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