A busy Atlantic hurricane season moved into top gear when
Hurricane Hanna developed near the Bahamas just as Gustav's winds
and surge lashed New Orleans and the newly formed ninth storm of
the year looked set to eventually threaten the United States or
Caribbean.
The flurry of storms was the latest evidence that predictions for a
busier than normal season were on the mark, and was worrisome news
for US oil and natural gas producers in the Gulf of Mexico,
millions living in the Caribbean and on US coasts, and farmers
fearing flooded fields.
Hurricane Hanna was packing maximum sustained winds of 130 kph and
intensifying near Mayaguana Island in the southeastern Bahamas, the
US National Hurricane Center said.
Hanna, which had meandered for days bewildering hurricane
forecasters, was expected to churn northwest through the Bahamas
before striking the US East Coast between north Florida and the
Carolinas.
Mayaguana, the most southeasterly of the Bahama islands, has a
sparse population of about 1,000 people.
Telephone contact with the island was not possible late on
Monday.
The nearby Turks and Caicos Islands were also hit by heavy rain and
strong winds as Hanna gathered pace.
"There's been no damage here so far," a resident of Grand Turk
said. "But there is strong wind. ... I think the capital,
Providenciales, is getting it worse than us."
Hanna was the fourth hurricane of the six-month season.
Atlantic storm seasons start on June 1 and usually peak on
September 10 and have an average of 10 tropical storms, six of
which strengthen into hurricanes with top sustained winds of at
least 119 kph.
The nine storms so far mean that this year is already way ahead of
normal activity, even though forecasters say it is very unlikely to
match record-busting 2005, when 28 storms formed, including
Hurricane Katrina, which devastated New Orleans.
In addition to Hanna - and eventually posing perhaps a bigger
menace - Tropical Storm Ike formed on Monday midway between Africa
and the Caribbean and was expected to strengthen rapidly into a
hurricane.
Ike is expected to become hurricane
Behind Ike, a tropical wave was coming off the coast of West Africa
and could develop into a tropical depression, the precursors to
tropical storms and hurricanes.
By late afternoon, Ike was about 2,250 km east of the Leeward
Islands and moving west at 26 kph, the hurricane center said.
Its top sustained winds of 85 kph were expected to reach hurricane
strength within 36 hours.
Computer models used to forecast tropical storm tracks indicated
Ike was likely to stick to a westerly path that would bring it just
north of the island of Hispaniola, shared by Haiti and the
Dominican Republic.
The Miami-based hurricane center said Ike could be a major
hurricane by then.
Major hurricanes are those that rank at Category 3 and higher on
the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale of storm intensity and are the
most destructive.
Hurricane Katrina was a Category 3 when it came ashore near New
Orleans, killing 1,500 people on the US Gulf Coast.
Hurricane Gustav was also a Category 3 on Monday shortly before
landfall but it weakened as it landed.
Long-range track and intensity forecasts are subject to enormous
error but some models suggested Ike could eventually dip to the
south-southwest, potentially threatening Haiti, Cuba or the Gulf of
Mexico where the United States produces 25% of its oil and 15% of
its natural gas.
