Heavy rains flooded parts of Haiti with head-high water, killing
at least 16 people, as Tropical Storm Hanna swirled over the
Bahamas and took aim at the US southeast.
A new tropical storm, Josephine, formed off Africa behind Tropical
Storm Ike.
Both were moving westward just as Hurricane Gustav dissipated
after slamming into the US Gulf Coast near New Orleans.
The flurry of Atlantic storms underscored predictions for a busier
than normal hurricane season and was worrisome news for US oil and
natural gas producers in the Gulf of Mexico, millions of people
living in the Caribbean and on US coasts, and farmers fearing
flooded fields.
The US government has forecast 14 to 18 tropical storms will form
during the six-month season that began on June 1, more than the
historical average of 10.
Josephine was already the 10th, forming before the statistical
peak of the season on September 10.
By Tuesday night, Hanna was bearing down on Great Inagua Island in
the Bahamas with 100 kph winds, the US National Hurricane Center
said.
It was expected to strengthen back into a Category 1 hurricane on
the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale of intensity, with winds of at
least 119 kph on Wednesday or Thursday.
Hanna dumped torrential rains on the south-eastern Bahamas and the
Turks and Caicos island, where emergency officials warned of high
seas and possible flooding.
In Haiti, heavy rains caused severe flooding in the northern port
city of Gonaives, where thousands of people died four years ago
during a similar catastrophe.
"The city is flooded and there are parts where the water gets to 2
meters," said civil protection director Alta Jean-Baptiste.
"A lot of people have been climbing onto the tops of their
houses since last night to escape the flooding."
Authorities said at least 12 people were killed in low-lying
Gonaives, three in the nearby town of Gros Morne and one in the
southwest city of Miragoane.
Florida emergency
Hanna had been drifting but was forecast to turn northwest on a
track that would take it near the Bahamian capital of Nassau and
near the US East Coast by Thursday.
It was likely to come ashore at the end of the week somewhere
between northern Florida and the Carolinas.
Although the official forecast kept it over water as it skirted the
Florida coast, state Governor Charlie Crist declared a state of
emergency.
Tropical Storm Ike headed west after forming on Monday between
Africa and the Caribbean and appeared likely to become a hurricane
that would threaten the Caribbean islands and possibly the United
States.
It was too early to say where Ike might go but the storm drew the
attention of energy companies running the 4,000 offshore platforms
in the Gulf of Mexico that provide the United States with a quarter
of its crude oil and 15 percent of its natural gas.
Ike was about 1,655 km east of the Leeward Islands and moving west
at 28 kph late on Tuesday.
Its top sustained winds had strengthened to 100 kph and were
expected to reach hurricane strength of 119 kph by Wednesday.
Josephine swirled over the far eastern Atlantic about 205 km
southwest of the Cape Verde Islands.
It was moving west-northwest at 22 kph, with top sustained winds
of near 85 kph, and could become a hurricane on Wednesday.
