Hanna Puts Scare Into Southeast

Several Atlantic Coast States On High Alert For Potential Flash Flooding As Storm Bears Down

(CBS/ AP)  Tropical Storm Hanna cruised toward the Carolinas on Friday, forecast to hit land overnight and promising to deliver gusty winds and heavy rain during a dash up the Eastern Seaboard that could wash out the weekend for millions of people.

Not far behind was a much bigger worry: a ferocious-looking Hurricane Ike, on a path similar to the one taken by Andrew, the Category 5 monster that devastated South Florida in 1992. Ike could hit Florida by the middle of next week.

Emergency officials urged evacuations in only a few spots in the Carolinas and about 400 people went to shelters in both states. Forecasters said there was only a small chance Hanna could become a hurricane, and most people simply planned to stay off the roads until the storm passed.

"My vacation lasts through Sunday," said Jesse King of Asheboro, N.C., who hid under a Myrtle Beach pier as winds picked up and bursts of blinding rain fell Friday evening. "They are going to have to tell me I have to leave if they want me to go before Sunday."

Georgetown, S.C., lies in the heart of Hanna's anticipated path, but officials fear residents aren't taking the threat seriously, reports CBS News correspondent Priya David.

"The response is not what we would want it to be," Sam Hodge, Georgtown emergency manager, told CBS News. "We feel there should be more people evacuating."

Rain started falling early Friday on the Carolina coast, with streets in some spots flooding by late afternoon and wind gusts hitting 45 mph as the leading edges of the storm approached land, making people gathered on beaches shout to be heard.

Hanna was expected to blow ashore early Saturday morning between Myrtle Beach and Wilmington, N.C., then race up the Atlantic Coast, reaching New England by Sunday morning. Tropical storm watches or warnings ran from Georgia to Massachusetts, and included all of Chesapeake Bay, the Washington, D.C., area and Long Island.

Terry Hash arrived in Myrtle Beach on Thursday, ready to celebrate her 50th birthday with college friends from Colgate University at the Raiders football game against Coastal Carolina.

"I'm not worried because it's not a Category 4," Hash said. "I just love the beach when it's stormy."

As many as 7 inches of rain were expected in the Carolinas, as well as central Virginia, Maryland and southeastern Pennsylvania. Some spots could see up to 10 inches, and forecasters warned of the potential for flash flooding in the northern mid-Atlantic states and southern New England.

The National Weather Service said the storm should hit the Carolina coast during a falling tide, tempering the potential for coastal flooding, but tornadoes may follow. People were urged not to leave as the storm strengthened.

"Now that we're getting some stronger winds, hopefully they've done everything they need to do because the time has come to stay put," said Ron Steve, a weather service meteorologist in Wilmington.

Sunset Beach, N.C., Police Chief Lisa Massey said an evacuation of 75 of the roughly 100 permanent residents and vacationers on her island went well. The island is separated from the mainland by the Intracoastal Waterway, and can only be accessed by a one-lane, pontoon bridge that has been tied open for the duration of the storm.

"We're just hunkered down and we're going to ride it out," she said.

South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford said people in low-lying areas, mobile homes, camping trailers or places susceptible to wind damage should consider leaving: "Now is the time to look at taking shelter."

In Wilmington, Kirby King, a 50-year-old Army veteran, arrived at a shelter in an elementary school housing about 140 other people.

"I've been married twice and been in the service 15 years. This storm doesn't scare me," he said.

Federal Emergency Management Agency officials expected Hanna to move quickly but said they had supplies in place and emergency crews ready to respond.

Utilities as far north as New Hampshire put electric and natural gas crews on notice they might have to work long hours to repair any damage. At the Ocean Edge Resort and Club on Cape Cod in Brewster, Mass., staff members braced for rain as they prepared for an outdoor wedding Saturday.

"Hopefully it will blow out to sea and it won't even bother them," said Bryan Webb, director of sales and marketing.

At 11 p.m. EDT, Hanna had maximum sustained winds near 70 mph and was centered about 140 miles south of Wilmington, N.C. The storm, blamed for disastrous flooding and more than 100 deaths in Haiti, was moving near 20 mph. A hurricane watch was in effect for Edisto Beach, S.C., to the Outer Banks of North Carolina near the Virginia line.

In Washington, officials prepared for the possibility of flooding in low-lying neighborhoods by removing debris from catch basins, stockpiling sandbags and lining up portable pumps and generators. In New Jersey, 300 dump trucks hauled in sand to fortify a beach in the Strathmere section of Upper Township.

"These shipments of sand are a good thing, but if they don't work out, the people down here could lose their houses," said Tim Buckland, whose family has owned an oceanfront house in Strathmere for 50 years. He was at the beach Friday, playing in bigger-than-normal waves with his family.

Amtrak canceled some Saturday service in preparation for Hanna. Ten trains, including the Silver Meteor between New York and Miami, and the Auto Train between Lorton, Va., and Sanford, Fla., were halted.

Organizers of the U.S. Open in New York said they may have to reschedule some of the tennis matches after seeing forecasts calling for about 12 hours of rain and wind up to 35 mph.

For all the talk of Hanna, there was more about Ike, which could become the fiercest storm to strike South Florida since Andrew, which did more than $26 billion in damage and was blamed for 65 deaths from wind and flooding along with car crashes and other storm-related accidents.

FEMA officials said they were positioning supplies, search and rescue crews, communications equipment and medical teams in Florida and along the Gulf Coast - a task complicated by Ike's changing path. Tourists in the Keys were ordered to leave beginning Saturday morning.

In Morehead City, N.C., charter captain Bobby Ballou sat on a bench and spliced lines to tie up his boat at the dock before Hanna arrived.

"I'm not too worried about this one," the 74-year-old Ballou said. "That Ike, I don't like him."

[slim1h2o]

liar! now i live in wimington,nc and the sky is partly cloudy with no rain


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Posted by livewire190 at 06:47 PM : Sep 05, 2008


It skipped you at 1st, or rather the 1st bands went to the south and west of you.

But what I said was the truth, and it''s still coming down as I post this.

[godzfan]

FEMA should be ready. Hanna, Ike, and Josephine could bring a great deal of rain. Flooding is a serious disaster. The American People will need grants to repair and rebuild. Why spend so much money in the Middle East?


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Posted by Petro49L at 07:57 PM : Sep 05, 2008
-----------------------------------------------------------------
News headlines of the future:
Iraq says it will send aid to the US for hurricane victims.

McCain administration budget cuts to FEMA cause Katrina like disaster.

McCain sends 8 billion in federal funding to help rebuild bombed out Iraq.

[godzfan]

thats real funny. I am sitting here in the middle of a hurricane typing this comment yeah we were real scared CBS. Hanna was just more of a nuisence than anything. The only people scared at this point are the reporters writing the news headlines.

[lloydbest1]

Posted by BC_Kelly at 04:07 PM : Sep 05, 2008
Posted by BC_Kelly at 08:24 PM : Sep 05, 2008

Good posts. Both of them well said. Now back to our regularly scheduled storm......

At near Cat 1 strength Hanna will be mostly a noise maker. BUT...that ain''t much comfort if she rips up your favorite Live Oak and dumps it on top of your Subaru - with you in it. And Hanna is fully capable of doing that much.
The real bad dog out there is Ike. He''s weakened to a low Cat 3 storm with sustained winds of "only" 115 mph and a core pressure filling in to 29.29 inches. OTOH he is battling a dome of strong high pressure with 20 to 30 knot shear winds ripping the guts out of his northern quadrants. There''s not much outflow. With the air mass he''s contending with, though, he should be a Cat 1 or tropical storm - and he ain''t. That''s worrisome.
What''s worse is that hig pressure cell is pushing Ike wsw into some MUCH wetter and more convective air. Good for strengthening. As he plows westward and recurves slightly north, all that stands between him and a Katrina like mess in the Gulf is Cuba. Latest projections have him missing both Cuba and south Florida, running dead nutz center between the two thru the Florida Straits. There Ike can (and probably will) suck up all that overheated Gulf water and reintensify to possibly a strong Cat 4 or even a 5.

[petro49l]

FEMA should be ready. Hanna, Ike, and Josephine could bring a great deal of rain. Flooding is a serious disaster. The American People will need grants to repair and rebuild. Why spend so much money in the Middle East?

[lovesamerica]

How long does a hurricane ''live'' I feel as though all of these storms have already out lived any interest. I do watch the weather channel, but it feels a little like chicken little, and I am afraid people are going to start thinking the weather men are crying wolf. Then they will stay, be put at risk and have to be rescued. I sure would like some of that rain.

[greeneyes222]

"Hanna Puts Scare Into Southeast"

Not even close. When did CBS start writing such emotional headlines?

It''s not like hurricanes are something new. This "sky is falling" mentality really needs to go away. Sheesh.

[gce65]

This storm or any other one is not a sign from God. It''s simply nature urinating on you for electing George Bush twice and nominating McSame/Quaylin.

[gce65]

The Southeast? That''s the bible belt! Must be a sign from God because the GOP nominated George McSame and Sarah Quaylin.

[livewire190]

Here it comes folks, Hanna that is. I''''m about an hour(or less) away from the 1st showers/storms from Hanna. And I''''m by Chapel Hill NC.

We will survive.


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Posted by slim1h2o at 05:24 PM : Sep 05, 2008

liar! now i live in wimington,nc and the sky is partly cloudy with no rain

[tamiwestwood]

BC_Kelly, please tell me you don''t attend my alma mater FSU..what ARE you tokin'' on?, and pass it this way please...
ooooooooowwweeeeeeeeeooooooooh!!!!!...to the tune of the of the ''twilight zone'' ....
as for the hurricane....like the commercial used to say, "it''s not nice to fool with mother nature"!!!

[slim1h2o]

Here it comes folks, Hanna that is. I''m about an hour(or less) away from the 1st showers/storms from Hanna. And I''m by Chapel Hill NC.

We will survive.

[hacker2xy]

JESUS CHRIST IS THE WAY AND THE TRUTH!!

[hacker2xy]

BC_Kelly what the hell are you smoking?

[vechibless]

'' .. god is odd, her one tentical is busy engineering a social machine made out of mosquitos and seaweed and such and five and ten year old girls and boys and such that is capable of building a forever out of a little bit of dirt and grass, even as another of her tenticals is busy waging wars that rape and kill mosquitos and seaweeds and such and five and ten year old girls and boys and such by cruelly utilizing market share and lunch money that otherwise would have belonged to mosquitos and seaweeds and such and five and ten year old girls and boys and such .. ''

[watchinall]

Re. I wonder if we''''ll see in the aftermath a bunch of retired-older Florida folks running around with stolen T.V.''''s and Mike Jordan NIKE tennis shoes from their looting-fest like the multi-generational-welfare folks did during Katrina? Posted by witchsince91 at 01:59 PM : Sep 05, 2008
+

We also saw caucasions stealing from grocery stores and looting clothing stores. Why when one race did the task it was called "finding" and when another race does the same thing, it''s called "looting"? They both were trying to survive when the government let all of them down. Hmmmmmm.

[gramto8]

from the article ...(snip)while others decided to ride out the fast-moving storm that had only a slight chance to become a small hurricane before crashing ashore overnight...(snip)...

Tropical storm force winds extend outward up to 315 miles from the center.
**********

This means this storm is around 600 miles or so across. That doesn''t sound so ''small'' to me... I realize the message meant small as in category 1, but it should have stated ''weak'', not ''small.

[marshall65]

Why is someone an idiot for not believing? Or for believing? Everyone has a choice in the matter. All the insults betray is a lack of confidence in one''s own beliefs.

If people want to think that something can come out of nothing, that''s their choice. They will never be able to ''scientifically'' prove it. God is evident but a believer is way out of bounds beating other people over the head with his or her beliefs.

[witchsince91]

I wonder if we''ll see in the aftermath a bunch of retired-older Florida folks running around with stolen T.V.''s and Mike Jordan NIKE tennis shoes from their looting-fest like the multi-generational-welfare folks did during Katrina?

[slim1h2o]

Displeased at 01:39 PM : Sep 05, 2008

Well said. But I think that your words, at best, fell on deaf ears. And at worst, fell on a closed mind.

But , you never know!