After battering the Caribbean, Hurricane Earl is heading toward the United States as a category 4 storm, and while its potential impact on the East Coast is unclear, officials are warning swimmers at local beaches of rough surf.

Earl has passed north of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands and could brush the U.S. late Thursday before heading back out to sea.

It's expected to create dangerous rip currents, but any small change in direction could decide whether the storm makes landfall.

Coastal residents from North Carolina to Maine are being urged to watch the storm carefully.

City Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe says lifeguards will be on extra alert and will decide when, and if, the water is too dangerous for swimmers.

"If you're going to the beach, listen to the lifeguards," said Benepe. "When the lifeguards decide that it's too dangerous for people to be in the water, they'll blow their whistles and get them out. If they decide you can only be in up to your knees, they'll do that. What we ask in return is a just lot of common sense."

And while big waves are what surfers live for, many warn that swimmers have to be cautious.

"People get in the ocean here and drown all the time because they think they can wade in," said one surfer. "And if there are no guards to tell them not to go any deeper than their ankles, they get in to their waists, they step off a little thing, you're in a rip, you're pulled out, you drown. It's as simple as that. It's incredibly dangerous."

Some New Yorkers are thinking twice about whether a trip to the beach should be part of their Labor Day weekend plans.

"It's too dangerous," said one beach-goer.

Still, others say the beach is too tempting, and they may not be able to resist a dip.

"I've always swam in these waters so it never scares me, no matter how tough it gets," said another beach-goer.

Congressman Anthony Weiner is asking the Army Corps of Engineers to prepare for the possibility that the Belt Parkway and homes in Brooklyn and Queens could be endangered.

Earl brought heavy winds and rain to the islands in the northeast Caribbean – causing flooding and damaging homes on Antigua and St. Maarten.

Close behind Earl is Tropical Storm Fiona, which formed yesterday in the open Atlantic.