OUTER BANKS, N.C. (WITN) - Though Erin is moving away from the NC coast, its impacts are still lingering and keeping parts of the Outer Banks’ major highway closed. Hwy 12 will stay closed at the Marc Basnight Bridge and on the north end of Ocracoke at this time.

Officials are urging visitors to begin evacuating at 10 a.m. Monday from Hurricane Evacuation Zone A, which includes the unincorporated villages of Rodanthe, Waves, Salvo, Avon, Buxton, Frisco and Hatteras. Residents are to begin evacuating at 8 a.m. Tuesday.

Swells generated by Erin will affect the Bahamas, Bermuda, the east coast of the United States, and Atlantic Canada during the next several days. These rough ocean conditions will likely cause life-threatening surf and rip currents. Currently, rough surf and rip currents are the main threats to the U.S.

Hurricane Erin is nearing the North Carolina coast, and its far-reaching effects are already causing rip currents and bigger waves along East Coast beaches.

NCDOT officials said "given the winds, wave heights and storm surge forecast, it likely won't be enough" to keep NC 12 from flooding at the Outer Banks.

Hurricane Erin is forcing evacuations on North Carolina’s Outer Banks as it churns in the Atlantic where high winds and heavy rain are pelting the Turks and Caicos Islands and parts of the Bahamas

Holly Andrzejewski hadn’t yet welcomed her and her family’s first guests to the Atlantic Inn on Hatteras Island when she had to start rescheduling them, as Hurricane Erin neared North Carolina’s Outer Banks on Tuesday and threatened to whip up wild waves and tropical force winds.