Hanna May Become Hurricane Before Hitting U.S. Coast

By Thomas Penny and Demian McLean

Sept. 4 (Bloomberg) -- Tropical Storm Hanna lashed the Bahamas after killing dozens in Haiti and may strike the U.S. Southeast as a hurricane.

Farther east in the Atlantic Ocean, Category-4 Hurricane Ike strengthened and headed for the Caribbean as an ``extremely dangerous'' system, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said. The threat of the storm pushed oil prices higher.

Hanna's eye was about 280 miles (451 kilometers) east- southeast of Nassau in the Bahamas and 760 miles south-southeast of Wilmington, North Carolina, the NHC said just before 8 a.m. Miami time. Hanna was moving northwest with sustained winds of almost 70 miles per hour.

``We expect Hanna to make landfall along the Carolina coast early Saturday morning and expect some strengthening as it moves over the warm Gulf Stream waters,'' AccuWeather Inc. senior meteorologist Paul Walker said today in a telephone interview.

The hurricane center's five-day forecast shows Hanna passing just east of the Bahamas today and near the Southeast coast of the U.S. tomorrow, possibly with hurricane-force winds, of at least 74 mph. The system is ``sprawling,'' the center said, with tropical-storm force winds, from 39 to 73 mph, extending 290 miles from the eye.

Hanna roared off Hispaniola's northern coast for two days, flooding the island, which is shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Haiti, the Western Hemisphere's poorest nation, and the Dominican Republic have been hit by Tropical Storm Fay and Hurricane Gustav in the past three weeks.

Haitian City Flooded

Hanna has already killed at least 61 people in Haiti, where rains inundated Gonaives, a city of 300,000 north of the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince, according to Agence France-Presse.

A hurricane watch was issued for the U.S. East Coast from Surf City, North Carolina, to the vicinity of Edisto Beach, South Carolina. A tropical-storm watch stretched southward from Edisto Beach to Altamaha Sound, Georgia.

``Swells from Hanna are expected to increase the risk of dangerous rip currents along portions of the southeastern United States coast during the next couple of days,'' the hurricane center said in its advisory.

Residents in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina should develop emergency plans and prepare emergency kits including medicine, food, water and batteries to support themselves for 72 hours, the Federal Emergency Management Agency said in a statement on its Web Site.

Ike Boosts Crude

Ike strengthened into the third major hurricane of the June 1-Nov. 1 Atlantic season. The system had sustained winds near 145 mph, the center said just before 5 a.m. Miami time.

Crude oil rose for the first time in five days as Ike gained force. Crude for October delivery rose as much as $1.25, or 1.1 percent, to $110.60 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Ike is a Category 4 storm, the second-strongest on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale, the center said. The hurricane's eye was 550 miles northeast of the Leeward Islands and moving west-northwest at about 17 mph. It's forecast to fluctuate in intensity over the next day or two.

``It is too early to determine what land areas might eventually be affected by Ike,'' the center said.

To the east of Ike, Tropical Storm Josephine strengthened slightly, with sustained winds at 60 mph. It was 465 miles west of the southernmost Cape Verde islands and moving west-northwest at 10 mph.

Colorado State University forecasters this week predicted ``well above-average'' tropical activity in the Atlantic for September, with four of five named storms becoming hurricanes.

To contact the reporters on this story: Thomas Penny in London at tpenny@bloomberg.net; Demian McLean in Washington at dmclean8@bloomberg.net.