Hurricane Erin weakens to Category 1 as storm moves away from Northeast; coastal threat remains

Hurricane Erin has weakened to a Category 1 storm Friday.

While the storm moves away from the United States, don't breathe a sigh of relief just yet: The massive hurricane is still churning up the Atlantic Ocean, keeping dangerous conditions in place for more than 1,000 miles of the East Coast.

Hurricane Erin has been a major disruption for coastal communities this week - especially North Carolina's Outer Banks - even without making landfall. It's stirred up life-threatening rip currents that prompted dozens of rescues and sent rushing water and sand over coastal roads from the Southeast all the way up through Massachusetts. Erin could keep pushing the ocean onto coastlines through at least Friday.

The hurricane made its closest approach to US soil Wednesday night as it skirted just 200