Island communities off the coast of North Carolina are bracing for flooding ahead of Hurricane Erin, the year’s first Atlantic hurricane.

Parts of North Carolina's Outer Banks are under mandatory evacuation orders, as the National Hurricane Center warns that Hurricane Erin could bring tall waves topping 15 to 20 feet.

Additional strengthening is expected as the storm is forecast to “remain a large and dangerous major hurricane through the middle of this week,” the National Hurricane Center said.

Rip currents are the third leading cause of deaths from hurricanes, and they can happen on a sunny day hundreds of miles from the storm.

Hurricane Erin was a Category 4 storm again Monday morning and is expected to grow even larger and stronger, according to the latest advisory from the National Hurricane Center. Although Erin is forecast to move north between the U.S. and Bermuda, life-threatening surf and rip currents are likely across the Atlantic coast from Florida to Canada.

As of 7 a.m. CDT Monday, the center of Category 4 Hurricane Erin was located about 115 miles north-northeast of Grand Turk Island, or 890 miles south-southeast of Cape Hatteras, N.C., and was tracking to the northwest at 13 mph.