Strong winds and waves battered Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard and dangerous rip currents threatened from the Carolinas to New England as Hurricane Erin made its way farther out to sea. The storm was forecast to cause possible coastal flooding into the weekend along the East Coast but was also expected to lose strength

Hurricane Erin was battering the northeast with strong winds and heavy surf on Friday morning as forecasters monitored three other systems in the Atlantic for possible tropical formation.