Hurricane Ike menaced Cuba and the Gulf of Mexico as a potentially ferocious storm while Tropical Storm Hanna began a rain-swept march up the US Atlantic coast after barrelling ashore on Saturday in the Carolinas. The densely populated Miami-Fort Lauderdale area in south Florida was not out of the line of fire from Ike, a powerful Category 3 hurricane, and visitors were ordered to flee the vulnerable Florida Keys island chain from Saturday.
Computer models, however, indicated Ike was increasingly likely to target Cuba as a devastating Category 4 hurricane on the five-step Saffir-Simpson intensity scale, presenting a severe threat to the crumbling colonial buildings of Havana.
The storm might then curve into the Gulf of Mexico in the wake of this week's Hurricane Gustav, plowing toward an area that produces a quarter of domestic US oil, and slamming ashore near New Orleans, which was swamped and traumatised by Hurricane Katrina three years ago.
The deeper Ike goes into Cuba, the weaker it will be once it re-emerges over the Gulf of Mexico early next week, the US National Hurricane Center said. Hanna, meanwhile, did not reach hurricane strength before sloshing ashore between North and South Carolina overnight.
It was forecast to move rapidly north-east along the East Coast over the weekend, bringing heavy rains and a risk of flash flooding to the mid-Atlantic states and southern New England. More than 3 inches of rain had already fallen in South Carolina. North Carolina emergency management officials said they had no early reports of fatalities or major damage. "We have reports of between 9,000 and 12,000 homes without power in the east," spokesman Mark Van Sciver said.
"There is also some localised flooding." More than 1,500 people were in 45 hurricane shelters along the coast and North Carolina Governor Mike Easley declared a state of emergency. From Georgia to New Jersey, beach communities were under evacuation orders, campgrounds were shut and storm alerts were issued.
Comments
Comments are closed.