RODANTHE, N.C. (AP) — Hurricane Erin battered North Carolina’s Outer Banks with strong winds and waves that flooded part of the main highway and surged under beachfront homes as the monster storm inched closer to the mid-Atlantic coast.

Forecasters predicted the storm would peak Thursday and said it could regain strength and once again become a major hurricane , Category 3 or greater, but it was not forecast to make landfall along the East Coast before turning farther out to sea.

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