The massive hurricane was picking up speed, traveling north at 14 mph, and its center was located about 295 miles south-southeast of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. A tropical storm warning is in effect for parts of North Carolina and Virginia as the impacts from Erin spread northward.

The International Space Station captured the unusually large storm as it swirled near the East Coast of the United States.

Hurricane Erin has battered North Carolina’s Outer Banks with strong winds and waves that flooded part of the main highway and surged under beachfront homes.

Meteorologists are closely tracking the projected path and forecast of Hurricane Erin, which is the first hurricane to develop over the Atlantic this year.

More than 33 million Americans were under coastal flood advisories on Aug 20 as Hurricane Erin head north toward the U.S. mainland.

On Wednesday, Hurricane Erin was several hundred miles off the coast of Florida and beginning to push storm surge and deadly rip currents toward the shore. Two other systems may form right behind.

Hurricane Erin's push up alongside the east coast is bringing rough seas and high winds to Cape Cod and the Islands, disrupting ferry travel in the waning weeks of summer.

The hatched areas on the National Hurricane Center's tropical outlook map indicate "areas where a tropical cyclone — which could be a tropical depression, tropical storm or hurricane — could develop," said National Hurricane Center Deputy Director Jamie Rhome.