US braced for hurricane danger

Tropical Storm Hanna roared past the edge of the Bahamas today before a possible hurricane hit on the Carolinas, leaving behind at least 137 dead in Haiti.

Meanwhile Hurricane Ike, a still-more-dangerous Category 4 storm, was advancing from the east.

Hanna blew by the Bahamas, knocking out power to Cat Island and causing minor flooding in other eastern islands, but sparing the Atlantic nation major damages.

The US National Hurricane Centre said Hanna should reach the coast of North or South Carolina by tomorrow, but its sprawling bands of outer winds are likely to hit the US far sooner.

Haiti’s government more than doubled Hanna’s death toll to 137 today. It had previously been 61.

Eighty of the deaths occurred in the flooded region of Gonaives and another 22 people died in areas immediately surrounding the port, according to statements released by the Ministry of the Interior and the Civil Protection Department. The remaining 35 deaths were scattered across Haiti, the statements said.

Gonaives has been almost entirely cut off by Hanna’s floodwaters and virtual lakes have formed over every road.

The storm also was blamed for two deaths in Puerto Rico.

Hanna’s heart was about 540 miles south Wilmington, North Carolina, early today. It was moving towards the north west near 14mph.

Its maximum sustained winds were 65mph but forecasters said it could become a hurricane before hitting the US

Forecasters expected Hanna to strengthen only slightly before making landfall tomorrow, though hurricane watches remained for much of coastal North and South Carolina.

The governors of Virginia and North Carolina declared states of emergency and officials urged residents to head inland Thursday as Hanna approached.

In the Bahamas, Hanna snapped telephone lines in the eastern island of San Salvador as it brushed past, said Quincy Poitier, who answered the phone at the Riding Rock Inn Resort And Marina, but there were no reports of injuries.

“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,” Mr Russell said.

By today, Ike had maximum sustained winds near 135mph. It was centred 475 miles north-north-east of the Leeward Islands and forecasters said it could reach the Bahamas by late Sunday or Monday.

Ike is the third major hurricane of the Atlantic season. Josephine followed behind, with maximum sustained winds near 45mph.

Forecasters later said Hanna is accelerating as it makes its way toward the United States’ south-east coast.

The National Hurricane Centre in Miami says only slight strengthening is expected before landfall, but that it is still possible for Hanna to become a hurricane.