By Gene Cherry
SALVO, North Carolina (Reuters) - Fierce Hurricane Ikeweakened as it charged across the Atlantic on Friday and tookaim at south Florida and the oil fields of the Gulf of Mexico,while Tropical Storm Hanna buffeted the Carolinas after killingat least 529 people in Haiti.
Hanna was expected to be just short of Category 1 hurricanestrength when it crosses the U.S. East Coast near the NorthCarolina and South Carolina border early on Saturday, the U.S.National Hurricane Centre said.
Nevertheless, authorities declared states of emergency,several North Carolina beach communities were under evacuationorders, campgrounds were shut and storm alerts were issued fromGeorgia to New Jersey, including for Washington, D.C., as theeighth tropical storm of the Atlantic hurricane season pulledaway from the 700 far-flung islands of the Bahamas.
Ike was far more threatening.
An extremely dangerous Category 4 hurricane on thefive-step Saffir Simpson scale on Thursday, it weakened a notchto a Category 3 with top sustained winds of 115 mph (185 kph),the Miami-based hurricane centre said.
By 8 p.m. (1 a.m. British time Saturday), it was spinning315 miles (510 km) north-northeast of Puerto Rico and wasexpected to sweep westward over the Turks and Caicos Islandsand the southern Bahamas by Sunday.
The Bahamian government sent soldiers and emergencysupplies to Mayaguana and San Salvador, southern islands leftshort of food and water by an overdue mail boat.
"If we have heavy flooding and lose power, we could be inan uncomfortable situation," said chief councillor Earnel Brownof the island of Mayaguana.
Some further weakening was possible but the hurricanecentre said Ike was expected to remain a "major" storm ofCategory 3 or higher.
Ike's track was riddled with uncertainty.
The hurricane centre's official forecast took it throughthe Florida Keys island chain as a ferociously destructiveCategory 4 hurricane into the Gulf of Mexico, where around4,000 offshore platforms produce a quarter of U.S. crude oiland 15 percent of the energy-hungry country's natural gas.
Visitors were ordered to evacuate the Keys on Saturday andresidents were ordered out beginning on Sunday.
Some computer models took Ike near the heavily populatedMiami area in southeast Florida, where up to 1.3 million peoplecould be ordered to leave the coast.
"It's a lot coming at us. But we must remain vigilant,focused and calm," Florida Gov. Charlie Crist said.
A Category 4 hurricane strike on Miami would be a hugedisaster because of the billions of dollars of vulnerable realestate in low-lying islands like Miami Beach and along thecoast of the Florida peninsula. Power would be out for millionsof people for an extended time.
TRIO OF THREATS
Tropical Storm Josephine churned weakly in Ike's wakeacross the Atlantic, with 40-mph (65-kph) winds as it spunabout 725 miles (1,160 km) west of the Cape Verde Islands.
The trio of Atlantic storms followed Hurricane Gustav'srampage through the Caribbean to Louisiana, where it cameashore on Monday west of New Orleans, largely sparing the citydevastated by Hurricane Katrina three years ago.
The flurry underscored predictions for an unusually busysix-month hurricane season. An average season has 10 tropicalstorms, of which six strengthen into hurricanes with topsustained winds of at least 74 mph (119 kph). Josephine wasalready this year's 10th, and the statistical September 10 peakof the storm season still lies ahead.
While Hanna did little damage in the Bahamas and posed onlya moderate threat to the U.S. East Coast, the death toll inHaiti was rising steadily as the floods unleashed by itstorrential rains began to recede.
Police Commissioner Ernst Dorfeuille said 495 bodies hadbeen found in the mud-heaped port city of Gonaives, wherethousands survived by climbing on rooftops. That brought thetoll for all of Haiti to at least 529.
Ships and planes had begun to arrive with desperatelyneeded aid for Haiti, which has been hit by three deadly stormsin less than a month.
By 8 p.m. (1 a.m. British time Saturday), Hanna was 200miles (320 km) south-southwest of Wilmington, North Carolina.It was racing north at 20 mph (32 kph) with top winds of 70 mph(115 kph).
Hanna roiled the ocean off North and South Carolina with18-foot (5.5-metre) waves. Sunny skies gave way to showers andbreezy conditions on North Carolina's Outer Banks whereresidents tested power generators and tied down trash cans andbeach chairs.
"It's a little breezy but not any more than a normal rainyday," said Lisa Bell, a manager at Howard's Pub and Restauranton Ocracoke Island, where the pirate Blackbeard once sailed.
The storm was expected to strike at high tide, bringing a5-foot (1.5-metre) storm surge likely to cause moderate coastalflooding, and heavy rains were expected far inland.
(Additional reporting by John Marquis in Nassau; Writing byJane Sutton and Michael Christie)
