WASHINGTON, D.C. - The east coast is bracing for strong winds and rip currents from Hurricane Erin. The National Hurricane Center said the storm is unlikely to make landfall, but it’s so large, it could cause problems for locals. 

“We don’t want people to be complacent,” said Virginia Beach, VA Emergency Management. “We have a lot of safeguards in place and we’re well prepared.” 

Along the east coast, locals are bracing for Erin’s impact. 

“We don’t want people letting their guard down, we want them to take it seriously and really pay attention to the forecast and know what's going on,” said VA Beach Emergency Services.  

“Hurricane Erin is forecasted to move offshore of the North Carolina Outer Banks and will remain offshore,” said National Hurricane Center branch chief, Daniel Brown. “However, it's such a large storm we’re expecting the impacts to occur in the Outer Banks with tropical storm force winds and the likelihood of storm surge, a lot of over wash from the high waves and the rip currents along the east coast but we’re expecting a lot of roads in the Outer Banks to be impassible.” 

The National Hurricane Center reports Erin has downgraded in strength over the past few days, but it's still a large storm.  

“It’s unusually large and it's expected to grow in size such as the winds stretch from the North Carolina’s Outer Banks to Bermuda,” said Brown. “And because of that large size, it’s producing very large wave field and we’re very concerned about the rip current threat all along the east coast of the US. Some of that rip current threat could linger into Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands even for a couple of more days. This storm has really churned up much of the western Atlantic.”  

Experts maintain this is an above normal hurricane season.  

“It's a good reminder if you weren’t severely impacted by this storm, it's always good to check your hurricane supplies,” said Brown. “Make sure you have a hurricane plan and continue to monitor the latest forecast for tropical development. Again, we can see a development in August, September and even in October.”