Hanna Takes Aim At Bahamas On Way To U.S.

Local Bahamian, U.S. Officials Warn Of Possible Evacuations; Ike Upgraded To Category 4 Hurricane In Atlantic

(CBS/ AP)  Tropical Storm Hanna knocked out power to the southern Bahamas on Wednesday and officials from Nassau to South Carolina warned residents to prepare for possible evacuations as it moves north and grows into a hurricane.

The storm, with winds near 65 mph, turned to the northwest after lingering for days near Haiti, where it caused flooding that killed 26 people.

Bahamas National Security Minister Tommy Turnquest canceled all leave for the Bahamas Royal Defence Force to keep soldiers on standby for disaster response.

"I now urge the general public to take the necessary precautions," Turnquest said at a news conference Wednesday.

As Hanna took aim at the heart of this Atlantic archipelago, islanders were also tracking two other storms churning westward in the open ocean, including Ike, which rapidly swelled late Wednesday evening into a ferocious Category 4 hurricane with winds near 135 mph.

Ike was roaring far out in the Atlantic, 610 miles northeast of the Leeward Islands, and forecasters said it was too early to say if it would threaten land. It is moving toward the west-northwest at 17 mph.

Ike is the third major hurricane of the Atlantic season, which runs from June 1 to Nov. 30. The other two are Bertha and Gustav.

Forecasters say Josephine, the tropical storm behind Ike, is weakening.

"We've got three of them on the way. We've just got to be prepared," said Frank Augustine, a 47-year convenience store manager, as he bought 10 five-gallon water jugs under blue skies at a Nassau depot.

Only a few dozen of the Bahamas' roughly 700 islands are inhabited, but they are near sea level and have little natural protection. In the south, Hanna knocked out electricity in Mayaguana Island and forced the closure of some small airports including those in Long Island and Acklins Island.

The storm was expected to pass near or over the central Bahamas on Thursday before reaching hurricane strength. But the National Hurricane Center in Miami warned its reach was expanding, with tropical-storm force winds extending up to 290 miles from the center.

"Hanna has become a large tropical cyclone," the center said.

Late Wednesday evening, Hanna was centered 355 miles east-southeast of Nassau, Bahamas. The hurricane center said Hanna was moving north-northwest at 13 mph and could become a hurricane on Thursday.

The hurricane center said a hurricane watch may be required for a portion of the southestern United States early Thursday.

Long-range forecasts call for the storm to hit anywhere from Georgia to North Carolina on Saturday and curve along the U.S. Atlantic coast.

Hanna would be the second major storm to make landfall in the U.S. in the past week, with Hurricane Gustav striking the Gulf Coast Monday, sending nearly 2 million residents fleeing. The process of returning home is underway.

In the Caribbean, Hanna has drenched the Turks and Caicos and Puerto Rico but wreaked the most havoc in storm-weary Haiti, where it flooded the western city of Gonaives.

[valhalla14]

Rharrin, I guess the truth hurts huh? its about time somebody called out that fraud "Obama". If you still believe Obama, you must be dumber than a Pol fighting a panzer on horseback.

Change, Change, Change...Blah, Blah, Blah, Same Old Sh-t. But hey, what can you expect from a "Community Organizer" who has less experiance in Government than I do.

[lloydbest1]

The latest from the NAtioal Hurricane Center:

Hanna appears to be headed towards N. Carolina and will (maybe) regain Cat 1 status. Don''t let Cat 1 fool you; Mitch didn''t do the bulk of its damage until it had deteriorated to Cat 1. Hanna can still be a very naughty child. For those of you living in New York, northeastern New Jersey and southern New England, prepare to get very wet by Sunday/early Monday.
The real t-rd in the punchbowl, though, is Ike. Over relatively cool waters and a 20 knot wind shear above him, he has still managed to spin up to Cat 4. Top sustained winds are in the 140 mph range and the last central pressure reading has him at 27.61 inches. Gustav never got that low.
Right now the EXPECTED path has him running wnw, then turning slightly to the south, then curving north a second time and eventually annoying the Bahamas (again!) but no one really knows for sure.
One possibility that should give anyone nightmares is Ike may decide not to take that second turn to the north. Instead Ike could slip into the Gulf through the Florida Straits, feast on all that 86 to 90 degree water there, then plow up all those oil platforms Gustav was kind enough to spare on its way to delivering another New Orleans smackdown.

[ralan40]

11 thousand years ago, much of the Us was covered by an ice sheet thousands of feet thick. As this ice retreated, peoples from Asia minor crossed a land bridge to settle into what is now north America. Mankind has been dealing with Global warming since the end of the last Ice Age. The Anasthazi and Mayan peoples were smart enough to relocate when the climate change affected them hundreds of years ago. What do modern Americans do? Move to the gulf coast and American Southwest and blame the leader of 5% of the world''s population on what has been happening all along. They are ignorent of the fact that we get our oil in the arctic from ancient plant life.

I think I''ll move near an airport and complain about the noise.....Then make it a political issue.
Meanwhile, the world''s human population that doubles every 40 years can continue to devestate our environment much worst than climate change.

[ralan40]

11 thousand years ago, much of the Us was covered by an ice sheet thousands of feet thick. As this ice retreated, peoples from Asia minor crossed a land bridge to settle into what is now north America. Mankind has been dealing with Global warming since the end of the last Ice Age. The Anasthazi and Mayan peoples were smart enough to relocate when the climate change affected them hundreds of years ago. What do modern Americans do? Move to the gulf coast and American Southwest and blame the leader of 5% of the world''s population on what has been happening all along. They are ignorent of the fact that we get our oil in the arctic from ancient plant life.

I think I''ll move near an airport and complain about the noise.....Then make it a political issue.
Meanwhile, the world''s human population that doubles every 40 years can continue to devestate our environment much worst than climate change.

[keithle1]

Stay in your houses, people of Louisiana & Florida. Don''t evacuate. Ever. Die. I don''t care.

Save your cats & dogs though. That would be cruel.

[koalabeer1]

For anybody who''s interested, rheola''s link at 1:15am doesn''t work properly. If you''re interested just go to:

http://www.abc.net.au

then look for "just in" under "News" in the top left hand corner.

[rheola-2009]

Posted by anon00 at 01:19 AM : Sep 04, 2008

And if Gustav had not diminished in intensity before it reached New Orleans, would you have made a similar posting.

I agree the media does sometimes go over the top, but in this case there was a potential disaster on the doorstep.

[rheola-2009]

Arctic melt heralds more cyclones and floods: expert
By Dan Karpenchuck

Posted 24 minutes ago
Updated 25 minutes ago

There are more signs of rapid climate change in the Arctic.

Researchers say five ice shelves along Ellesmere Island in Canada''s far-north have shrunk by 23 per cent this summer alone.

The shelves once covered an area of more than 5,000 square kilometres but now they are barely 10 per cent of that.

Warwick Vincent of the centre for northern studies at Quebec''s Laval University describes the impact of the melting this year as staggering.

He says climate models suggest the most severe changes will take place in the highest northern latitudes, as a starting point for more substantial changes throughout the rest of the planet.

That means more hurricanes, cyclones and floods.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/09/04/2355478.htm?section=justin

[rheola-2009]

Posted by betty2700631 at 10:25 PM : Sep 03, 2008

Golly, we appear to have a tart on deck.

[rheola-2009]

Posted by rharrin1 at 09:16 PM : Sep 03, 2008

You know, as an outsider looking in, I can only agree with you.

If the people of the U.S. can go with McCain, and that unbelievable choice foe VP, I can only say, they deserve that.

However after this past 8 years of total self servig disaster by the ruling party,it is a bit of a worry for the rest of the world.

Have a good one.

[rheola-2009]

Hanna Takes Aim At Bahamas On Way To U.S.
Local Bahamian, U.S. Officials Warn Of Possible Evacuations; Ike Upgraded To Category 3

and another two severe storms/hurricanes following behind, with Gustav,that makes 4 in a short period.

Must be associated with global cooling.