U.S. east coast braces for deadly Hanna

A major rain-generator, Hanna churned through the Bahamas en route to the U.S. Atlantic coast, prompting emergency preparations before its expected arrival late Friday, after unleashing flooding and landslides in Haiti that left thousands homeless and without food or water.

Hanna was expected to maintain tropical storm status as it crashes ashore near North or South Carolina, U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) spokeswoman Karina Castillo told AFP.

Heavy rain, wind and high surf were forecast along the southeastern coast ahead of the storms arrival as governors in North Carolina and Virginia declared states of emergency. South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford called for voluntary evacuations in two counties threatened by the storm.

Packing sustained winds near 100 kmh (65 mph), at 1200 GMT Friday, the center of the storm was about 185 km (115 miles) east of Melbourne, Florida and some 680 km (425 miles) south of Wilmington, North Carolina, the NHC said.

A hurricane watch remained in effect for parts of the North and South Carolina coast as authorities prepared for possible flooding and kept a wary eye on a more formidable storm, Hurricane Ike, out in the Atlantic.

Ike was forecast to spare Haiti as it plowed across the Atlantic while the Caribbean nation struggled to recover from devastating flooding from Tropical Storm Hanna which killed 136 and stranded hundreds of thousands.

The forecast path of the storm had Ike bypassing northern Haiti and heading into the Bahamas, Castillo said.

"At least for now" Haiti looks likely to be spared yet another hit, she said. "Currently Hispaniola (the island shared by Haiti on the west and the Dominican Republic on the east) is out of the three-day forecast cone, but Cuba is not," she added noting that soaked northeastern Cuba could feel Ike’s wrath.

"After Cuba, Ike is forecast to move into the central Bahamas and to make landfall in South Florida" on Wednesday as a major (Category 3-to-5) hurricane Castillo warned.

Densely populated south Florida, including the cities of Miami and Fort Lauderdale, has not been hit by a major hurricane since devastating Hurricane Andrew in 1992. Andrew was the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history until it was topped by Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Ike was downgraded slightly Friday but remained dangerous, the NHC said.

With sustained winds of 205 kilometers (125 miles) per hour, the hurricane over the western Atlantic was now a category three on the five-level Saffir-Simpson scale instead of a category four, but the center said Ike was "still forecast to be a major hurricane in a couple of days."

In Haiti, the country’s third largest city Gonaives remained largely under water with Senator Yuri Latortue, who represents the city, calling the situation "catastrophic."

"I know perfectly well that the hurricane season has hit our entire country, but the situation in Gonaives is truly special, because now some 200,000 people there haven’t eaten in three days," he said.

The impoverished country has been battered by a succession of three storms in as many weeks.

As of 0900 GMT, the eye of Hurricane Ike was about 1,065 kilometers (660 miles) northeast of Grand Turk Island and was moving west at about 24 kilometers (15 miles) per hour, the NHC said.

Forecasters said it was too soon to tell definitively if it would track north toward the U.S. eastern coastline, or westward toward Cuba and the Gulf of Mexico.

Ike was part of a trio of storms in the Atlantic, with Tropical Storm Hanna heading towards the United States this weekend and Tropical Storm Josephine churning in the eastern Atlantic off of Cape Verde.

The storms follow Hurricane Gustav, which ripped through the Caribbean then slammed the U.S. Gulf Coast, and Tropical Storm Fay, which also pounded several Caribbean islands and made landfall in Florida four times, dumping record amounts of rain.

Hanna struck Haiti one week after it was hit by Gustav, which killed 77 people. Two weeks ago, Fay sparked flooding in the country that left about 40 people dead.

Photo: AP