Hanna Landfall

Tropical Storm Hanna is making landfall now as we watch her in the C4L Tracking Center.

A tropical storm, almost a hurricane, Hanna is dumping rain with winds of over 70 MPH.
As I told one of our Chasing4Life supporters in Clayton, North Carolina yesterday…prepare for the storms, the water, power outages and tornadoes.

The center of Hanna should be moving across eastern North Carolina early this morning and across the mid-Atlantic coast later Saturday and Saturday night.

A Tropical Storm Warning has been extended northward to Watch Hill, Rhode Island, including all of Chesapeake Bay, Washington, DC, New York Harbor and Long Island sound. This means that Hanna is expected to sweep through the warning area within the next 24 hours.

The District of Columbia activated its emergency operations center at noon today in preparation for Hanna. The Department of Public Works is distributing sandbags to residents who experience flooding during heavy rains.

DC Homeland Security and Emergency Management Director Darrell Darnell is urging citizens to clear gutters, drains and downspouts and remove or secure any loose objects such as lawn furniture or barbecue grills from their yards, as they may become projectiles during high winds.
Coast Guard units throughout New England are pre-staging their crews and equipment and warning mariners in anticipation of severe weather conditions expected to arrive late Saturday night or early Sunday morning.

Falcon jet crews from Air Station Cape Cod, Massachusetts, began flying storm tracks Thursday to broadcast the warnings to mariners offshore.

On land, a flood watch is in effect for portions of southern Connecticut, northeast New Jersey and southeast New York from Saturday afternoon through late Saturday evening.

A Tropical Storm Watch is in effect from east of Watch Hill to Merrimack River, Massachusetts, including Block Island, Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket.

Coastal storm surge flooding of three to five feet above normal tide levels with large and dangerous battering waves are expected along Hanna's path. Rainfall of three to seven inches is likely, forecasters say, with the potential for flash flooding in the mid-Atlantic region and southern New England.

Right behind Hanna, a major hurricane is tracing an erratic path through the Caribbean. Hurricane Ike was located about 425 miles north of the Leeward Islands, or about 1100 miles east of Miami this afternoon.

Ike is moving west at around 16 mph, but I expect it to turn more toward the west-southwest Friday and Saturday, with a turn back toward the west on Sunday.

Maximum sustained winds are near 120 mph, making Ike a Category 3 hurricane. Ike is likely to maintain a Category 3 or 4 intensity as it moves toward the southeastern Bahamas this weekend. Hurricane watches were issued for the southeastern Bahamas earlier this afternoon.

I was right about landfall, and glad I was off on my prediction of strength. By nightfall tonight, North Carolina should be clear. Too late for a concert outdoors Ted?

My concern at this point is a strike from Ike in Florida soon.