On Wednesday morning, 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

Three flags warn of surf and rip current conditions. Red means a high hazard, yellow means a moderate threat and green means low danger. There's also purple for dangerous sea life, such as jellyfish, and double red when a beach is closed for any reason.

Hurricane Erin is maintaining its strength as a major hurricane, churning in the Atlantic Ocean and delivering tropical storm force winds to Turks and Caicos and parts of the Bahamas. Erin’s influence will be increasingly felt along the tri-state area’s coastline during the latter half of the week.

Hurricane Erin's path will not bring its strongest winds ashore. However, it continues to grow in size, and its impacts from high surf, rip currents and coastal flooding are already increasing along parts of the East Coast.

The girl’s sister, Sameeha Sultana, 13, was found unresponsive about an hour later at 7th Avenue, a block north. Rescue crews and the U.S. Coast Guard pulled her out of the water, and CPR was performed. She was taken to Jersey Shore University Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead.

On Monday at 3:11 p.m. an updated rip current statement was released by the Nation Service in effect until Wednesday at 8 p.m. for Cape May County.

Hurricane Erin strengthened on Wednesday as it headed north in the Atlantic. Here's the latest update, path, warnings and more for the Jersey Shore.