Erin has weakened to a Category 2 hurricane. Erin is expected to stay at category. Erin has tropical storm force winds stretching out over 200 miles from the center. The entire wind field of Erin stretches over 500 miles.

Hurricane Erin forced tourists to cut their vacations short on North Carolina’s Outer Banks even though the monster storm is expected to stay offshore after lashing part of the Caribbean with rain and wind on Monday.

A weather alert was issued by the NWS Newport/Morehead City NC on Monday at 2:51 p.m. for strong thunderstorms until 3:30 p.m. The alert is for Mainland Hyde as well as Tyrrell and Beaufort counties.