The beaches at Assateague Island and Ocean City, Maryland, are closed due to dangerous rip currents and high surf brought on by Hurricane Erin.

Rough surf conditions and dangerous rip currents have forced many beaches to ban swimming and boogie boarding this week.

Surf’s up at the East Coasting Surfing Championships in Virginia Beach, but the tents and scaffolding for the event will be coming down Wednesday afternoon as an offshore hurricane lumbers up the coast.

Some beaches in the Delaware Valley have prohibited swimming as a precaution as Hurricane Erin moves closer to the East Coast.

Hurricane Erin has strengthened to a Category 4 storm as it threatens to bring life-threatening surf and rip currents to the eastern coast of the United States. The rains caused by the storm are already beginning to hit the south-eastern Bahamas, and the Turk and Caicos Islands, where a tropical storm warning is in effect.

Unfortunately, what began as a dream trip has turned into an unexpected challenge,” troop leader wrote Sara Lee Reysen said on GoFundme

Hurricane Erin is expected to grow in size and strength as it moves north through the Atlantic this week. Forecasters expect it to pass well offshore of North Carolina on Wednesday and Thursday, but say it likely will cause coastal flooding and erosion, along with dangerous rip currents. National Hurricane Center

The hurricane’s behavior in recent days makes it one of the fastest-strengthening Atlantic hurricanes on record.