Tropical Storm Hanna moving quickly up east coast

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. - Tropical Storm Hanna sailed easily over the beaches of Carolinas' coast early Saturday, blowing hard and dumping rain but apparently causing little damage at the start of its speedy run north to New England.
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 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 spokesman Mark Kruea.

He said city services would be open and that ``despite a week of preliminary hype'' the storm didn't have much of an impact on the city except a few downed trees and some power outages that were repaired in less than a half-hour.
Further to the north, officials in North Carolina reported more than 30,000 customers without power as Hanna moved inland through the eastern part of the state.

The wind started to kick in about 2:30 a.m., said Don Ogle, of Newport, night manager of a Morehead City motel along North Carolina's central coast. He said half of the motel's day crew stayed overnight. ``I don't know why. I'd go home if I could,'' he said.

The National Hurricane Center in Miami said Hanna's center came on land about 3:20 a.m. near the state line with top sustained winds dropping to about 60 mph from near 70 mph while the storm was over water.

Hanna started drenching the Carolina coast Friday, with some street flooding by late afternoon. People on the beach had to shout to be heard. By early Saturday, the wind howled with gusts near 50 mph and rain came in blinding bursts in Myrtle Beach. The lights flickered several times along some beachfront blocks and the wind was so strong that it made waves in hotel pools. Several roads flooded at the peak of the storm, including U.S. 17 in Georgetown, which was shut down for several hours.

But nearly all the flooding was gone before daybreak, said Georgetown County Emergency Management Division spokesman Greg Troutman. ``We lucked out. There's not much out there to report,'' Troutman said after daybreak Saturday. ``But it was good to dust off the ol' emergency plan.''

The storm was causing some travel headaches. Raleigh-Durham International Airport canceled a few dozen flights Saturday morning. No problems were reported at Charlotte-Douglas International and Piedmont Triad International in Greensboro.

Also, Amtrak idled 10 trains, including the Silver Meteor between New York and Miami, and the Auto Train between Lorton, Va., and Sanford, Fla.
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. Andrew did more than $26 billion damage and was blamed for 65 deaths.

In preparation for Ike, the Federal Emergency Management Agency was positioning supplies, search and rescue crews, communications equipment and medical teams in Florida and along the Gulf Coast a task complicated by the hurricane's changing path. Tourists in the Keys were ordered to leave beginning Saturday morning.