Tips to stay safe as Hurricane Ernesto brings dangerous rip currents to Jersey shore this weekend

Tips to stay safe in dangerous rip currents

Hurricane Ernesto is hundreds of miles offshore, but expected to kick up dangerous rip currents throughout the weekend. Here are tips to stay safe while enjoying a weekend at the beach.

OCEAN CITY, N.J. - As Hurricane Ernesto continues to churn off the east coast, forecasters hundreds of miles away are warning of dangerous rip currents caused by the Category 2 storm.

The National Weather Service warned beachgoers on Thursday of "dangerous rip currents" along with 5-8 foot waves this weekend at Jersey shore beaches.

The weather warning will last from Saturday night through Monday night. While the U.S. remains hundreds of miles off Ernesto's path, forecasters expect U.S. ocean waters to remain unsettled as the storm spins up the Atlantic.

Ernesto is expected to strengthen further on Friday before it passes near or over Bermuda on Saturday. Tropical storm conditions including strong winds and life-threatening floods were expected to start affecting Bermuda on Friday afternoon, according to the National Hurricane Center.

"It’s like a river under the water, so, for instance, it’s almost like the down current of the river pulling you, Lieutenant Frank Christy, of the Ocean City Beach Patrol, stated.

If you get caught in a rip current, you should stay calm, swim parallel to the beach, don’t try to fight the current and get a lifeguard’s attention.

Lt. Christy said he’s working overtime this weekend and predicts he’ll have to make more rescues than usual. He added, "Our big thing in Ocean City is using jet skis to bring people in because of the bigger waves."

Surf instructor Matthew Ellison, said, "Always want to be where the lifeguards are and we keep people in. Never too deep where they can’t stand up."

The storm was forecast to dump between 6 and 12 inches of rain, with up to 15 inches in isolated areas. Forecasters noted that Ernesto was a large hurricane, with hurricane-force winds extending up to 70 miles (110 kilometers) from the center and tropical-storm-force winds extending up to 265 miles (425 kilometers).

Hurricane Ernesto churns up dangerous rip currents at Jersey shore

The surf along the Jersey shore will be too dangerous to enter in as Hurricane Ernesto passes hundreds of miles offshore, but stirring up rip currents in its wake.

Ernesto previously battered the northeast Caribbean, where it left hundreds of thousands of people without power and water in Puerto Rico after swiping past the U.S. territory as a tropical storm.

Ernesto is the fifth named storm and the third hurricane of this year’s Atlantic hurricane season.

The Associated Press contributed to this article.