Hurricane Erin is set to bring large waves, strong winds and extremely dangerous surf conditions to the Carolinas. Donnie Shumate is the public information officer for Hyde County, North Carolina, and talks about how the county is preparing for the storm.

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.

Hurricane Erin rapidly intensified last week, going from a Category 1 hurricane to a Category 5 hurricane with winds of 160 mph in a matter of hours.

Category 2 Hurricane Erin moved northwest at 7 mph about 720 miles to the southeast of Cape Hatteras on Tuesday morning. Still forecast to be turning away from the shoreline of North Carolina on Thursday,