Editor's note: Read the latest on Hurricane Erin here.
Major Hurricane Erin's outer bands were lashing Puerto Rico and other Caribbean islands with heavy rains, as officials in the North Carolina Outer Banks declared a state of emergency Sunday.
The big picture: The U.S. was expected to avoid a direct hit, but Dare County made the emergency declaration and issued a mandatory evacuation order for Hatteras Island for Monday onwards due to the storm's expected "life-threatening impacts."
