An unoccupied beach house along the Cape Hatteras National Seashore on North Carolina's Outer Banks collapsed into the water on Friday evening, local time, as Hurricane Ernesto passed the United States' East Coast.
On Sunday, seashore officials urged the public to avoid beaches in parts of the village of Rodanthe — where the rough surf had caused "substantial damage" to several oceanfront structures.
"Debris from the collapsed home has been observed up to approximately eleven miles [17.7 kilometres] north of the home collapse site," the Cape Hatteras National Seashore said in a Facebook post.
It said the beach remains closed and the full extent of the damage remains unknown.
It also advised residents of Buxton Beach, 40 kilometres away, to stay out of the water after finding "hazardous debris" including "compromised septic systems" broken off from houses into the surf.
It said all residents should avoid the water due to "life-threatening" surf conditions.
Debris clean-up was expected over the next several days.
Ernesto previously battered the north-eastern Caribbean as a category one hurricane, leaving tens of thousands of people without water in Puerto Rico.
It then headed for Bermuda, where it brought heavy rain and strong winds before weakening to a tropical storm on Saturday.
As it churned further into the north-eastern Atlantic on Sunday, Ernesto regained hurricane status and sent powerful swells across the East Coast.
Rip currents associated with the storm have caused one death so far, and prompted many rescues.
Forecasters, citing local emergency management, said a 41-year-old man drowned on Saturday in a rip current at Surf City, North Carolina.
Two men drowned Friday in separate incidents on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, but it was unclear whether rip currents were involved, The Island Packet of Hilton Head reported, citing a lifeguard services spokesperson.
At Manasquan Inlet in New Jersey, officials said a fisherman was washed off the north jetty on Saturday but was quickly rescued by lifeguards.
The victim had knee and back injuries and a possible concussion and was taken to a hospital, Lifeguard chief Doug Anderson told NJ Advance Media, and lifeguards rescued at least five other people.
In Ventnor to the south, Senior Lieutenant Meghan Holland of the city beach patrol said eight people were rescued.
A warning has extended from Florida to the Boston area and portions of Maine.
Mount Holly, New Jersey meteorologist Mike Lee said rip currents become more likely and potentially more frequent in periods of high risk, posing a danger to all swimmers — not just inexperienced ones.
"It's going to be really dangerous out in the water today," he said.
On New York's Long Island, East Hampton Village Mayor Jerry Larsen said beaches were closed to swimmers on Saturday and Sunday because high tides pushed water right up to the base of the dunes "so you can't really have people sitting on the beach".
Many people watched the water from the parking lot on Sunday, he added.
"It's quite a sight to see the water coming up almost to the parking lot, and if you think about it that storm was hundreds of miles offshore so it must have been quite powerful," he said.
The National Hurricane Center in Miami said Ernesto's maximum sustained winds are 120 kilometres per hour, just barely Category 1 strength.
More strengthening was forecast before Ernesto weakens to a post-tropical cyclone on Tuesday, the hurricane centre said.
The storm is expected to pass near south-eastern Newfoundland late Monday and early Tuesday.
Life-threatening surf and rip current conditions are likely to continue in the Bahamas, Bermuda, the East Coast and the Canadian Atlantic coast in the next couple of days, the hurricane centre said.
The National Weather Service posted a coastal flood advisory and warned of a high risk for rip currents along the Atlantic Coast through Monday evening, saying they "can sweep even the best swimmers away from shore into deeper water".
AP/ABC
