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Hanna makes way across US
06/09/2008 16:16 - (SA)
North Carolina - Tropical Storm Hanna sailed easily over the beaches along Carolinas' coast and moved inland on Saturday, blowing hard and dumping rain in eastern North Carolina but causing little damage beyond isolated flooding as it quickly headed north toward the New England states.
Emergency officials were already looking past Hanna to powerful Hurricane Ike, several hundred miles out in the Atlantic. With Category 3 winds of near 115 mph, Ike could approach Cuba and southern Florida by Monday, as Hanna spins away from Canada over the North Atlantic.
"Hanna is heading north in a hurry, leaving behind sunshine for the weekend," said Myrtle Beach city spokesperson Mark Kruea.
He said city services would be open and that "despite a week of preliminary hype" the storm did not have much of an impact aside from a few downed trees and some power outages that were repaired in less than a half-hour. It was the same story in eastern North Carolina, where Hanna headed with top winds of around 50 mph after coming ashore around 03:20.
Not too many problems
Julia Jarema, a spokesperson at the NC Emergency Operations Centre, said there are reports of some localised flooding, temporary road closures and scattered power outages, but that officials haven't heard about too many problems.
"As the day goes on, I'm sure we're going to hear more reports of flooding as people get out and get on the roads," she said.
At least 1 500 spent the night in shelters and more than 55 000 customers - mostly around Wilmington, North Carolina - were without power early Saturday in the Carolinas.
Forecasters warned of the potential for flash flooding in the northern mid-Atlantic states and southern New England.
"Fortunately it happened during the night, on the weekend. That would be a mess if it happened during the week as people are tying to get to work," said National Weather Service meteorologist Jonathan Blaes.
No rain fell to the west in Charlotte, where Tropical Storm Fay flooded streets and forced the evacuations of homes two weeks ago.
US Open
Hanna started drenching the Carolina coast on Friday, with some street flooding by late afternoon. By the time it reached the coast, the storm's top sustained winds had dropped to about 60 mph from near 70 mph while the storm was over water.
The storm was causing some travel headaches. Raleigh-Durham International Airport cancelled a few dozen flights on Saturday morning. Amtrak idled 10 passenger trains, including the Silver Meteor between New York and Miami, and the Auto Train between Lorton, Virginia, and Sanford, Florida.
The storm has been blamed for disastrous flooding and more than 100 deaths in Haiti.
Organisers of the US 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 in 1992 which did more than $26bn in damage and was blamed for 65 deaths.
- AP
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