LIVE: Outer Banks - Hurricane Erin

While Erin is unlikely to make landfall along the East Coast before turning farther out to sea, authorities expect its large swells will cut off roads to villages and vacation homes on North Carolina's Outer Banks and whip up life-threatening rip currents from Florida to New England. Despite the beach closures, some swimmers were continuing to ignore the warnings. Rescuers saved more than a dozen people caught in rip currents Tuesday at Wrightsville Beach in North Carolina -- a day after more than 80 people were rescued. Water from the Atlantic was already washing onto the main route through the Outer Banks on Wednesday, and some sections are likely to be impassable during high tide later in the evening. Authorities warned that time was running out to leave, but most residents decided to stay despite evacuations ordered on Hatteras and Ocracoke Islands. “We probably wouldn't stay if it was coming directly at us,” said Rob Temple, who operates sailboat cruises on Ocracoke. His biggest concern was whether the main route will be washed out, and if tourists and delivery trucks will be cut off from the thin stretch of low-lying barrier islands that are increasingly vulnerable to storm surges.