Hurricane Erin leaves rough seas with 2 swimmers dead and a search underway for a missing boater

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SALISBURY, Mass. (AP) — Hurricane Erin never made landfall but left behind rough ocean conditions along the U.S. East Coast. At least two people died after they had been swimming in the heavy current, and a search continued Monday for a man who was missing after his boat capsized.

Beaches were beginning to reopen Friday after Erin, twice the size of an average hurricane, had weakened into a post-tropical cyclone far from land, but was still capable of causing life-threatening surf and rip currents, the National Hurricane Center in Miami had said. Erin's outer bands had already brushed North Carolina, though it caused no widespread damage.

Still, North Carolina’s barrier islands took a beating last week from Erin’s strong winds and swells, leading to breached sand dunes, localized flooding and closures along North Carolina Highway 12, the route linking the Outer Banks to the mainland. State transportation officials said they were poised late Monday to reopen on Ocracoke Island the last portion of N.C. 12 that had remained closed. Vehicle ferry service between Ocracoke and Hatteras Island up the coast also was reopening late Monday.

In Massachusetts, a team of police and U.S. Coast Guard members were resuming their search Monday for a man in his 50s who was missing after a boat capsized off of Salisbury Beach on Saturday. The other person in the boat was taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

Despite challenging weather and sea conditions including 6- to 8-foot swells, the team performed sonar scans, dives, surface and aerial patrols on Sunday, the state police said in a news release. In Maine, a man was rescued Saturday after his sailboat capsized in high surf in York Harbor.

In New Hampshire, authorities are investigating the death of a 17-year-old boy who had been swimming with family members off of Hampton Beach on Sunday night.

Witnesses said he was pulled away by a strong ocean current and his father unsuccessfully tried to rescue him. Lifeguards brought both to shore and began livesaving efforts on the teen, who was later pronounced dead at a hospital. The father was treated there.

A man drowned Saturday after being caught in a strong rip current off the New York coast, at Sailors Haven in the Fire Island Natoinal Seashore in Suffolk County, authorities said. Ishmoile Mohammed, 59, was visiting from South Carolina.

Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Juliette formed Monday in the Pacific Ocean hundreds of miles from Mexico’s Baja California peninsula as Tropical Storm Fernand churned in the Atlantic Ocean.

No coastal watches or warnings were in effect for either storm, the hurricane center said.

Juliette posed no immediate threat to land, forecasters said. The storm was about 470 miles (760 kilometers) southwest of the southern tip of the Baja California peninsula. It had maximum sustained winds of 60 mph (95 kph) after strengthening in recent hours.

The storm was moving west-northwest at 14 mph (22 kph). The hurricane center said Juliette was expected to strengthen further in coming hours and had the potential to become a hurricane by Tuesday.

In the Atlantic basin, Fernand formed Saturday but was also far from land and forecast to remain over open ocean waters. It was about 485 miles (775 kilometers) east-northeast of Bermuda with maximum sustained winds of 60 mph (95 kph) and heading north-northeast at 14 mph (22 kph).

The storm was expected to turn more to the northeast as it moves away from Bermuda and weaken starting Monday night.