Hurricane Hanna Forms In Atlantic

Warnings Issued For Bahamas, Turks And Caicos; Storm Could Hit U.S. Coast

(AP)  Hurricane Hanna formed Monday, bringing fierce winds, wind and battering waves to the Bahamas and Turks and Caicos islands. Forecasters warned it could hit the U.S. coast by midweek.

"The storm's on top of us right now and it's blowing really hard," said Miguel Campbell, a mechanic with the Bahamas Electricity Corp. on the island of Mayaguana, the easternmost in the Bahamas, where some 300 people were hunkered down at home or in a government shelter.

In the nearby Turks and Caicos, wind and rain forced the closure of the airport and schools and cleared the streets.

There were no immediate reports of injuries or major damage.

Hanna is the eighth named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season and comes on the heels of Gustav, which was battering the Gulf Coast on Monday. An eventual strike on the U.S. mainland was in the forecast.

"Right now, the uncertainty is such that it could hit anywhere from Miami to the outer banks of North Carolina," said Jessica Schauer Clark, a meteorologist at the hurricane center. "So people really need to keep an eye on it."

NASA wasn't taking any chances -- it announced a delay of at least a day in the planned move of the space shuttle Atlantis from an assembly building at Florida's Kennedy Space Center to the launch pad. The move had been scheduled for Tuesday in preparation for an October mission to the Hubble Space Telescope.

At 1:30 p.m. EDT, Hanna's center was located near Mayaguana Island, moving west-southwest at 5 mph with maximum sustained winds near 75 mph and higher gusts.

Hanna was expected to bring up to 12 inches of rain to the Turks chain, a popular tourist destination with about 22,000 people.

Tourists Jason and Carolina Volpi were out of luck as they tried to leave. The Providenciales airport was shut down and all flights were canceled. They couldn't get seats out until Thursday, too late to attend business meetings back in Italy.

"The situation is very frustrating," Jason Volpi, 36, said as they waited under darkening skies for a taxi back to their hotel.

The European Union said Monday it would give $2.9 million to help the recovery from Gustav, which killed 94 people. The money will pay for clean water, food, medical care, shelter and basic household items in Haiti, Cuba, Jamaica and the Dominican Republic. In Haiti, 8,000 people are in temporary housing after high winds and floods destroyed homes and farms.

The earth is trying to cool itself down from global warming with hurricanes.

[whitemale08]

I love how the GOP have pat themselves on the back all day today after dealing with a little baby Category 1 Hurricane.

They think that will redeem themselves after "sitting on their hands" for 4 days after the historical Category 5 Hurrican Katrina.

Brownie had the nerve to show his ugly mug on television today. What a joke.

It''s like I said, the Republicans hate "hard-working middle-class and the poor people". They only care about war and using the military to steal oil from different countries around the world.

Republicans are disgusting!!!

And now they talking "family values" when they have a Vice Presidential candidate who''s running around the streets getting knocked-up.

This party has got to go for good, 8 IS ENOUGH!!!!

[realpatriot1]

Tomflint69,

Life is not meant to be without loss. Life is a journey and testing ground for the soul. The loss of life is more traumatic for those left behind, at least that''s what I believe.

One thing that can be said about life on this earth is that no faith or theory can be tied up neatly into a pretty bow.

ban-one,

Where in South Carolina were you? I''m 20 miles south of Raleigh. This area is not in a flood plain and is 80-90 miles from the coast, so we don''t have to worry about storm surge. My primary concern if it comes our way is a tornado coming at us.

[raynefalls]

Mother Earth is getting back at us. One violent storm at a time. They will only get worse as time goes on. She is trying to cleanse herself of all the damage we have done.

[lovesamerica]

Another week of drama, then with 2 storms behind Hanna 2 more weeks... Where I live we have ice storms, microbursts, winds in excess of 60mph, frgid temps and rain. Oh well our climate is not a hurricane...hohum