Weather News

Hanna lashes US coast as Hurricane Ike looms

Tropical Storm Hanna has made landfall on the border of the US states of South and North Carolina, US meteorologists said.

The even more powerful Hurricane Ike is also threatening Caribbean islands and the United States.

Hanna prompted emergency preparations along more than 1,600 kilometres of the North and South Carolina coastline, after unleashing flooding and landslides in Haiti that killed at least 495 people, displaced thousands and left as many as 200,000 with little or no food or water.

Heavy rain, wind and high surf began to lash the south-east coast late on Friday (local time) after the governors of North Carolina and Virginia declared states of emergency.

South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford called for people to evacuate two counties.

At 4:00pm AEST, the storm packed sustained winds near 110 kilometres per hour.

Several southern US states have endured Tropical Storm Fay and Hurricane Gustav in recent weeks and officials expressed concern that people along the coast were not taking Hanna seriously.

"The response is not what we would want it to be," emergency manager for Georgetown, South Carolina, Sam Hodge told CBS News.

"We feel there should be more people evacuating."

Authorities also kept a wary eye on the more formidable Hurricane Ike out in the Atlantic.

Ike was forecast to spare Haiti while the Caribbean nation struggled to recover from devastating flooding from Hanna which killed hundreds.

"At least for now," Haiti looks likely to be spared yet another hit, NHC spokeswoman Karina Castillo said.

The poorest country in the Americas is now reeling from the devastation inflicted by three storms in as many weeks.

The country's third largest city, Gonaives, remained under water following Hanna, and Senator Yuri Latortue who represents the city called 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," Senator Latortue said.

A lifeline was extended to thousands when a boat carrying World Food Program relief supplies docked at Gonaives port, the WFP said.

Haiti's Government pleaded for international aid, and the United Nations prepared an emergency appeal.

Switzerland, France, the United States, the European Union and the Red Cross were among early aid givers.

Ike was on course to pummel the Bahamas over the weekend before possibly slamming into Cuba, another island nation recently battered by this hurricane season's conga line of storms.

Ike is then forecast to make landfall in south Florida on Wednesday as a major hurricane, Ms Castillo warned.

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

Ike has been downgraded slightly but remains a "major hurricane" as it churns over the western Atlantic, with sustained winds of 185 kilometres per hour - a Category 3 on the five-level Saffir-Simpson scale, the NHC said.

As of 4:00pm AEST, Ike was 530 kilometres north-east of Grand Turk Island and was moving south-west at about 26 kilometres per hour, the NHC said.

Ike and Hanna were part of a trio of storms in the Atlantic that includes Tropical Storm Josephine in the eastern Atlantic near Cape Verde.

They follow Hurricane Gustav which ripped through the Caribbean then slammed the US Gulf Coast, and Tropical Storm Fay which pounded several Caribbean islands and then dumped record amounts of rain in Florida.

- AFP

- AFP

© AFP 2008

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