Hanna visits the Bahamas
09/02/2008
Hurricane specialist Jamie Rhome tracks Hanna at the National Hurricane Center in Miami, Florida, on Monday.
MIAMI, Florida -- Hanna lost some of its punch early Tuesday as it began its trek across the Bahamas, but forecasters warn that the storm could regain strength and re-form into a hurricane by the end of the day.
The slow-moving tropical storm is already dumping heavy rain on the southeastern islands of the Bahamas, as well as nearby Turks and Caicos and Haiti to the south.At 8 a.m. ET, Hanna's top wind speed dropped from 80 mph to 70 mph (113 kph), making it a strong tropical storm, according to the National Hurricane Center.Hanna, which is crawling westward at 2 mph, is expected to take a slight turn to the north later in the day and move into the central Bahamas on Tuesday night and early Wednesday. It could make landfall in the southeastern United States -- either in Florida, Georgia or the Carolinas -- by the end of the week.As of 8 a.m., Hanna was hovering over Great Inagua Island in the southern Bahamas, where one longtime resident said most people had "battened up" ahead of the storm."We have a heavy breeze now. The eye [of the storm] will be passing over us," Eleanor Walkine told CNN at 9 a.m. ET.Walkine, who owns a small beachfront guest house on the island, said she was "relieved" that no tourists had booked rooms at her five-room bed and breakfast.While some residents evacuated to shelters on the island, Walkine said she stayed in her house with the hurricane shutters over her windows.Walkine, who helped build the guest house with her husband more than 20 years ago, said most tropical storms skirt Great Inagua Island."We haven't seen a hurricane for a long time because every time they say it's coming, it turns off," she said.As Hanna lumbers across the Bahamas, the region is also keeping an eye on Tropical Storm Ike, which is heading toward the Caribbean at 15 mph and could strike the Turks and Caicos Islands by Sunday.Ike, which has maximum sustained winds near 50 mph, could pick up some strength as it crosses the open Atlantic Ocean over the next two days, the hurricane center said in its 5 a.m. advisory.Right behind Ike is Tropical Depression 10, which formed off the coast of West Africa on Tuesday with top winds near 35 mph. It is expected to gain strength and become a tropical storm later in the day, but it remains far from land.
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