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updated 6:09 p.m. ET Sept. 5, 2008
Weather

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Hanna, Ike aim for East Coast
Evacuations in Key West ordered ahead of Hurricane Ike's arrival

Gerry Broome / AP
Vehicles drive through standing water from Tropical Storm Hanna on
Highway 12 in Rodanthe, N.C., Friday. Hanna was forecast to make
landfall somewhere along the Carolina coast early Saturday.
MSNBC News Services
MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. - Tropical Storm Hanna charged toward the Carolinas
on Friday, threatening to deliver gusty winds and heavy rain up the
Eastern Seaboard, while authorities in the Florida Keys ordered the
beginnng of evacuations there ahead of Hurricane Ike.

The one-two storm threat had states along the Atlantic on edge.

Forecasters said Hanna was just below hurricane strength, with top
winds of 70 mph, as it took aim on the mid-Atlantic coast. As of 5
p.m. EDT, it was centered about 240 miles south of Wilmington, N.C. It
was projected to blow shore overnight between Myrtle Beach and
Charleston, and was likely to wash out the weekend from the Carolinas
to Maine.

The U.S. Census Bureau calculated that more than 40 million people in
192 counties along the Eastern Seaboard could feel effects of Hanna. A
tropical storm warning was in effect from Georgia to New Jersey, and a
hurricane watch was in effect for parts of the Carolinas.

In only a few spots in the Carolinas did emergency officials urge
evacuations or open shelters, and most people simply planned to stay
off the roads until the storm passed.

"If it was a Category 1 or 2, I might think about leaving," said Eddie
Brown of Gastonia, N.C., who planned to spend the weekend at Myrtle
Beach. "And I tell you, if it was Ike, I'd already be long gone."

Hurricane Ike was days from any landfall in the United States but had
the potential to pummel the Florida Keys and the oil-producing Gulf of
Mexico.

Authorities in Key West, Fla., ordered visitors to leave starting
Saturday morning, and told residents they would face a phased
evacuation starting Sunday morning. Tropical-storm-force winds from
Ike could arrive in the Keys as early as Monday night. Florida Gov.
Charlie Crist declared an emergency.

Wet weekend in store
President Bush called the governors of South Carolina, North Carolina
and Virginia on Friday morning to discuss preparations for Hanna,
which killed scores of people in Haiti.

Rain started to fall early Friday on the Carolina coast, with streets
in some spots flooding by late afternoon. Several inches 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 potential for flash-flooding in the northern mid-
Atlantic states and southern New England.

In Charleston, S.C., Mayor Joseph P. Riley Jr. said there was no
reason to flee, but urged residents to stay inside when Hanna blows
through. "Stay home, protect yourself, look out for your neighbors and
we will get through this just fine," he said.

Some refused to cancel long-set plans to visit the shore. 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. It really shows the power the ocean
has."

High tide came in midday and rolled all the way up to the dunes along
parts of Myrtle Beach, drawing hundreds of people to gawk and walk
along the shore. Vacationers strolled among the T-shirt shops and
beachwear stores of South Carolina's most popular tourist destination.
A few risked the water, despite the red "No Swimming" flags.

"I saw the waves and I figured I probably won't get another chance to
do this. Might as well try it," said Burt Leibach, 29, of Pittsburgh.
"It's rough — knock you off your feet a few times. But it's fun."

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."

Crews on standby
Federal Emergency Management Agency officials said they expect Hanna
to move quickly up the coast without the need for a lot of mandatory
evacuations. Still, they 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 that 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. "Everyone's going to
be dressed so impeccably. You don't want to have someone ruin a dress
or a purse."

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, while organizers of the U.S.
Open tennis tournament in New York said they might have to reschedule
some of the matches.

I don't like Ike
For all the talk of Hanna, there was more concern about Ike, which
could become the fiercest storm to strike South Florida since
Hurricane Andrew in 1992. Andrew was blamed for 65 deaths and more
than $35 billion in damage. 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.

Though days away from reaching land, Ike was expected to remain a
"major" storm of Category 3 or higher.

The latest forecast took it through the Florida Keys island chain as a
ferociously destructive Category 4 hurricane into the Gulf of Mexico,
where around 4,000 offshore platforms produce a quarter of U.S. crude
oil and 15 percent of the energy-hungry country's natural gas.

Some computer models took Ike near the heavily populated Miami area in
southeast Florida, where up to 1.3 million people could be ordered to
evacuate.

"It's a lot coming at us. But we must remain vigilant, focused and
calm," Crist, the Florida governor, said.

Fourth storm out there
Farther out in the Atlantic was Tropical Storm Josephine, which
churned weakly in Ike’s wake with 50-mph winds.

The flurry underscored predictions for an unusually busy six-month
hurricane season. An average season has 10 tropical storms, of which
six strengthen into hurricanes with top sustained winds of at least 74
mph. Josephine was already this year’s 10th, and the statistical Sept.
10 peak of the storm season still lies ahead.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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- 495 corpses found after Haiti floods
- U.S. offers aid to Gustav-blasted Cuba
- Some Gustav evacuees to get hotels paid for
- Experts: Conditions primed for storms

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