| Hanna heads to Carolinas; Ike not far behind |
| Friday, September 5, 2008 |
MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- Tropical Storm Hanna is expected to reach the Carolinas early Saturday, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami, Florida.
North and South Carolina, as well as Georgia, have opened emergency centers in anticipation of Hanna's arrival. However, mandatory evacuation orders have not yet been issued.
Hanna's center was about 125 miles (200 kilometers) north of Great Abaco Island and about 430 miles (690 kilometers) south of Wilmington, North Carolina, according to the hurricane center's 5 a.m. ET Friday advisory.
The storm was moving toward the northwest near 20 mph (32 kph) with top sustained winds near 65 mph (100 kph), the hurricane center said.
"Only slight strengthening is forecast prior to landfall, although it is still possible for Hanna to become a hurricane," according to the hurricane center.
"People are reminded that there is very little difference between a strong tropical storm and a minimal hurricane," forecasters said.
A hurricane watch was in effect from north of Edisto Beach, South Carolina located about 30 miles south of Charleston, South Carolina to Ocracoke Inlet, North Carolina, which is about 169 miles north of Wilmington.
A tropical storm watch is also in effect from Edisto Beach to Altamaha Sound, Georgia.
After landfall, the storm was expectd to "race to the northeast" delivering "very heavy rainfall" to the mid-Atlantic and New England states over the weekend, forecasters said.
The historic city of Charleston prepared for the worst. Workers started boarding up city buildings on Wednesday and firefighters were filling and distributing sandbags to residents and business owners. Back-up generators were being gassed up and positioned at key locations around the city.
"We will continue until we know we're totally out of the woods," Charleston spokeswoman Barbara Vaughn said.
Cathy Haynes, Charleston County's director of emergency operations, said Charleston County schools would be closed Friday. "We'd also like to encourage residents that either live in low-lying areas or mobile homes, or if they just feel vulnerable to the situation at hand, to maybe move to safer locations," she said.
Jennifer Moses, a resident of Charleston's Daniel Island, told CNN she is ready for whatever comes.
"I filled up the gas can, I have water, I have peanut butter, and I took the rocking chairs off the front porch," she said.
Downtown Charleston, situated on a peninsula between two rivers, is extremely prone to flooding. Recent downpours from the remnants of Tropical Storm Fay left a foot and a half of water on some streets.
However, the city hasn't had a mandatory evacuation since Hurricane Floyd in 1999. At that time, traffic was so congested that it took up to 19 hours to make the two-hour drive inland to Columbia, South Carolina.
South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford urged the voluntary evacuation of two northeast counties, Horry and Georgetown, as Hanna approached.
"The suggestion is for people to look at this storm and make their own decisions," he said.
At Parris Island, South Carolina, hundreds of America's newest Marines graduated Thursday from basic training, a day earlier than planned because the base didn't want Hanna to cause problems for families coming to the celebration, Master Sgt. Mark Oliva said.
However, he said the base's emergency center was standing down, as the storm's track seemed to put Parris Island out of harm's way.
At another Marine Corps installation in South Carolina, Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort, nearly two dozen F-18 Hornets were flown out in advance of the approaching storm, according to its public affairs office.
The base had not issued any kind of evacuation order, the office said.
Marine Corps Air Station New River, North Carolina -- which lies adjacent to Camp Lejeune -- and the Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, North Carolina, some 40 miles northeast of there, had not decided Thursday whether to move their aircraft fleets. Officials at both installations said they would likely decide by Friday.
Farther north, the U.S. Navy Mid-Atlantic Region said its ships in the Hampton Roads area in Virginia were prepared to leave if conditions become severe.
Once the storm moves ashore -- most likely near the North Carolina-South Carolina state line -- Hanna is expected to "race to the northeast while becoming extratropical," the hurricane center said.
While the coasts of Georgia and central Florida could get one to three inches of rain, some areas of the Carolinas could get up to five inches, according to the hurricane center.
"Very heavy rainfall amounts are likely to spread rapidly northward into the mid-Atlantic states and New England from Friday night into Saturday and may result in flooding," the advisory said.
Flooding caused by Hanna's rains killed at least 137 people in Haiti, a government official said Thursday.
Rescue workers were trying to get aid to victims affected by the storm, said Abel Nazaire, the assistant coordinator of Risk and Disaster Management in Haiti.
Hanna passed over the northern city of Gonaives on Tuesday, leaving water more than four meters deep in some places, Nazaire said.
Meanwhile, Hurricane Ike continues to churn in the Atlantic. The storm is hundreds of miles from the U.S. coastline, but forecasters warned it could land in southern Florida as a Category 3 storm by Tuesday night.
"Ike remains a small, but impressive hurricane" on radar, according to forecasters from the hurricane center.
Ike's top winds of 135 mph made it a Category 4 storm on the Saffir-Simpson scale, but it was expected to lose some of that punch before approaching land, according to the hurricane center.
As of 11 p.m. ET Friday, Ike was centered 475 miles (760 kilometers) north-northeast of the Leeward Islands and was moving toward the west near 14 mph (22 kph).
Ike is expected to continue westward for the next several days before turning to the west-northwest and toward Florida, the hurricane center said.
"The big question is when will the turn take place," forecasters said.
The tracking map issued by the hurricane center shows Ike hitting south Florida Tuesday evening. The latest track is a compromise between "two distinct branches" of guidance. One model predicts Ike will go further south over Cuba or the Straits of Florida, while the other would take more to the north over the Bahamas, the hurricane center said.
The hurricane center also said "four- and five-day forecasts are subject to potentially large errors in both track and intensity." |
posted by moderator  Londen time 12:03 PM |
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