East Coast prepares for T.S. Hanna; Cat. 4 Ike close behind

Updated 1:40 p.m.

By BRUCE SMITH
Associated Press Writer

CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) - Residents moved boats and booked inland hotel rooms while National Guard troops prepared to deploy along the Southeastern coast as Tropical Storm Hanna plowed through the Atlantic on Thursday, with Category 4 Hurricane Ike trailing a few days behind.
Gov. Mark Sanford planned to ask residents along South Carolina's northern coast to head inland starting at noon. But the uncertain path of Hanna, which may become a hurricane by the time it hits land sometime Saturday, had emergency officials holding off ordering coastal residents to head inland. Still, high schools in South Carolina canceled football games and workers in Savannah, Ga., put storm shutters over the windows of the gold-domed City Hall.
"Hopefully the good Lord will bless us and this storm will skirt past but we are ready in whatever case happens," North Charleston Mayor Keith Summey said.
Hanna, responsible for at least 61 deaths in Haiti, was chugging through the Bahamas on Thursday with 70-mph winds, just short of hurricane strength. A hurricane watch was issued Thursday for Edisto Beach, S.C., north to Surf City, N.C. And a tropical storm watch was issued from Edisto Beach south to Altamaha Sound, Ga. A hurricane watch means hurricane conditions are possible within 36 hours. A tropical storm watch means tropical storm conditions are possible within 36 hours.
The storm was tentatively predicted to hit somewhere along the Carolinas, and its winds were forecast to rake along more southern shorelines. Officials as far north as Washington urged people to prepare for the possibility of heavy wind and rain.
Ike could arrive in the Bahamas on Sunday; Tropical Storm Josephine was farther out to sea.
Hanna comes as New Orleans residents start to return home after fleeing Hurricane Gustav, which did less damage than feared but still caused serious flooding and could leave some in Louisiana without electricity for up to a month.
But Hanna wasn't spawning such a mass exodus just yet.
Officials contemplated whether to order evacuations for the roughly 1 million people who live between Savannah and Wilmington, N.C. Gov. Tim Kaine declared a state of emergency Thursday in Virginia, freeing up state resources for storm response.
Authorities in Maryland said Hanna could bring 40-mph gusts and 4 inches of rain there. North Carolina Gov. Mike Easley said Hanna could bring 10 inches of rain to the state and pleaded with residents to be prepared. Food and other emergency supplies are available at state emergency warehouses.
"We have in place everything that we need," Easley said.
Uninhabited islands at Cape Lookout National Seashore north of Wilmington, N.C., and campgrounds on the southern end of the Cape Hatteras National Seashore were to close at 5 p.m. Thursday. The Marines at Parris Island, S.C., moved their weekly recruit graduation up a day to Thursday. South Carolina restricted port operations. In the Carolinas, Air Force bases sent planes to Ohio.
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Associated Press writers Jeffrey Collins, Page Ivey, Susanne M. Schafer and Katrina A. Goggins in Columbia; Russ Bynum in Savannah, Ga.; and Estes Thompson in Raleigh, N.C., contributed to this report.

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Original story 9:04 a.m.

NASSAU, Bahamas (AP) - Tropical Storm Hanna roared along the edge of the Bahamas on Thursday ahead of a possible hurricane hit on the Carolinas, leaving behind at least 61 dead in Haiti.
Hurricane Ike, a still-more dangerous Category 4 storm, was advancing from the east.
Hanna was forecast to pass east of the Atlantic archipelago before striking along the coast of North or South Carolina by Friday night, but the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said Hanna's sprawling bands of outer winds are likely to hit far sooner. Tropical storm force winds extended outward as far as 290 miles (465 kilometers) from the center.
Haitian authorities on Thursday blamed Hanna for 61 deaths, most due to flooding.
Civil Protection Department spokesman Abel Nazaire said 21 of the deaths were in the northern city of Gonaives, which has been almost entirely cut off by floodwaters.
The storm also was blamed for one death in Puerto Rico.
Hanna's heart was about 280 miles (455 kilometers) east-southeast of Nassau - and about 760 miles (1,220 kilometers) south-southeast of Wilmington, North Carolina, around dawn Thursday. It was moving toward the northwest near 12 mph (19 kph).
Its maximum sustained winds of 70 mph (110 kph) were just a little short of hurricane force, and forecasters said it could strengthen.
A hurricane watch was posted from Surf City, North Carolina to Edisto Beach, South Carolina, with a tropical storm force watch south to Altamaha Sound, Georgia.
Forecasters said it could curve northeastward after hitting U.S. coast and run up the seaboard past New York with tropical-storm-force winds.
No major damage or injuries have yet been reported in the Bahamas.
"Most certainly I am relieved. We are tranquil," said Stephen Russell, interim director of the Bahamas National Emergency Management Agency.
But he was already worried about Ike and Tropical Storm Josephine behind it.
"As soon as we are clear with Hanna, we have to turn our eyes now on Ike, a powerful one coming ashore," Russell said.
Early Thursday, Ike had maximum sustained winds near 145 mph (230 kph). It was centered 550 miles (885 kilometers) northeast of the Leeward Islands and forecasters said it could reach the Bahamas by Monday. It was moving toward the west-northwest at 17 mph (28 kph).
Ike is the third major hurricane of the Atlantic season, which runs from June 1 to Nov. 30. The other two were Bertha and Gustav, which was blamed for 112 deaths in the Caribbean, including 76 in Haiti.
Josephine, too, grew stronger early Thursday after weakening on Wednesday. Josephine had maximum sustained winds near 60 mph (95 kph) and was moving toward the west-northwest near 10 mph (17 kph).
"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 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.