HURRICANE UPDATE - HANNA Prompts EVACUATION WARNING for GEORGETOWN and HURRICANE IKE is not far behind

Tropical Storm Hanna is expected to reach the Carolina coast early Saturday and bring "very heavy rainfall" to the mid-Atlantic and New England over the weekend, forecasters said.

A second storm, the "small but impressive" Hurricane Ike, could land in southern Florida as a Category 3 storm by Tuesday night, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

Forecasters are also keeping an eye on Tropical Storm Josephine, far out in the Atlantic. Josephine had maximum sustained winds of 50 mph and is too far off for any predictions of landfall.

Emergency centers were opened by North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia in anticipation of Hanna's arrival, but no mandatory evacuations have been ordered.

The hurricane center's 5 a.m. Friday advisory placed Hanna's center about 125 miles (200 kilometers) north-northwest of Great Abaco Island and about 430 miles (690 kilometers) south of Wilmington, North Carolina.

The storm, moving toward the northwest near 20 mph, had top sustained winds near 65 mph (100 kph), the hurricane center said.

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"Only slight strengthening is forecast prior to landfall, although it is still possible for Hanna to become a hurricane," forecasters said.

"People are reminded that there is very little difference between a strong tropical storm and a minimal hurricane," they added.

A hurricane watch was in effect from north of Edisto Beach, South Carolina -- about 30 miles south of Charleston -- to Currituck Beach Light, North Carolina.

A tropical storm watch is also in effect from Edisto Beach to Altamaha Sound, Georgia.

The historic city of Charleston prepared for the worst. Workers started boarding up city buildings on Wednesday, and firefighters were filling and distributing sandbags to residents and business owners. Backup generators were being gassed up and positioned at key locations around the city.

"We will continue until we know we're totally out of the woods," Charleston spokeswoman Barbara Vaughn said.

Cathy Haynes, Charleston County's director of emergency operations, said Charleston County schools would be closed Friday.

"We'd also like to encourage residents that either live in low-lying areas or mobile homes, or if they just feel vulnerable to the situation at hand, to maybe move to safer locations," she said.

Jennifer Moses, a resident of Charleston's Daniel Island, said she is ready for whatever comes.

"I filled up the gas can, I have water, I have peanut butter, and I took the rocking chairs off the front porch," she said. iReport.com: Are you prepared for the storm?

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At Parris Island, South Carolina, hundreds of Marines graduated Thursday morning from basic training -- a day earlier than planned because the base didn't want Hanna to cause problems for families coming to the celebration, Master Sgt. Mark Oliva said.

At Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort in South Carolina, nearly two dozen F-18 Hornet fighter jets were flown out, the public affairs office said.

Further north, the U.S. Navy Mid-Atlantic Region said its ships in the Hampton Roads, Virginia, area are prepared to leave should conditions become severe. A decision is due after 8 a.m. Friday.

Once it moves ashore -- most likely near the North Carolina-South Carolina state line -- Hanna is expected to "race to the northeast while becoming extratropical," the hurricane center said.

While the coasts of Georgia and central Florida could get 1 to 3 inches of rain, some areas of the Carolinas could get up to 5 inches, forecasters said.

"Very heavy rainfall amounts are likely to spread rapidly northward into the mid-Atlantic states and New England from Friday night into Saturday and may result in flooding," the center said.

Flooding caused by Hanna's rains killed at least 137 people in Haiti, a government official said Thursday. Watch Hanna's aftermath in Haiti »

Rescue workers were trying to get aid to victims of the storm, said Abel Nazaire, the assistant coordinator of Risk and Disaster Management.

South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford urged the voluntary evacuation of two northeast counties, Horry and Georgetown, as Hanna approached.

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"The suggestion is for people to look at this storm and make their own decisions," he said.

"Every one of us needs to continue to watch out in the Atlantic because this could be a dress rehearsal for a thing called Ike," he said.

"Ike remains a small but impressive hurricane" on radar, the hurricane center said.

Ike's top winds of 125 mph made it a Category 3 storm on the Saffir-Simpson scale, 10 mph below its strength measured six hours earlier, according to the hurricane center's 5 a.m. advisory.

The forecast calls for Ike to be a Category 3 major hurricane as it approaches the Florida coast next week. Watch a view of Ike from space »

Ike was centered 460 miles (740 kilometers) north of the Leeward Islands and was moving toward the west near 15 mph (24 kph).

Ike is expected to continue westward for the next several days before turning to the west-northwest and toward Florida, the hurricane center said.


"The big question is when will the turn take place," the forecasters said.

One model predicts Ike will go further south over Cuba or the Straits of Florida, while the other would take more to the north over the Bahamas, the hurricane center said.

Floodwaters frustrated efforts by Argentine peacekeepers to distribute food at orphanages marooned by tropical storm Hanna on Thursday. They hunkered down in their base as desperate people begged for food and water outside the gates.

A Haitian politician struggling to gauge the extent of the damage in Haiti's fourth-largest city helicoptered into the UN compound and said the situation is critical.

"If they don't have food, it can be dangerous," Senator Youri Latortue said Thursday after arriving from Haiti's capital. "They can't wait."

Half the homes in the low-lying city of 160,000 remain flooded in Hanna's wake, estimated Lt. Sergio Hoj, spokesman for the Argentine battalion.

Some 250,000 people are affected in the Gonaives region, including 70,000 in 150 shelters across the city, according to an international official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information.

The official death toll rose to 61 Thursday as Hanna finally moved north with near-hurricane winds on a path toward the southeastern U. S. coast. But there was no way of knowing how many people might be dead in the chaos, or how many had been driven from their homes.

And forecasters warned that hurricane Ike could hit the western hemisphere's poorest country next week.

Gonaives lies in a flat river plain between the ocean and deforested mountains that run with mud even in light rains. Hanna swirled over Haiti for four days, dumping vast amounts of water, blowing down fruit trees and ruining stores of food as it swamped tin-roofed houses.

Many of the thousands of people who fled to rooftops, balconies and higher ground have gone without food for days, and safe drinking water was in short supply as the fetid carcasses of drowned farm animals bobbed in soupy floodwaters.

Businesses were closed, both because of flooding and for fear of looting.

People in water up to their knees shouted to peacekeepers to give them drinking water, and women on balconies waved empty pots and spoons.

The Argentine soldiers have plucked residents from rooftops that were the only visible parts of their houses, but had little capacity to deliver food and water.

"It is a great movement of panic in the city," Interior Minister Paul Antoine Bien-Aime told the AP from a UN speedboat.

The Gonaives area accounted for most of the 2,000 victims of tropical storm Jeanne in 2004. Some residents said the current flooding was at least as bad.

"This is worse than Jeanne," said Carol Jerome, who fled from Gonaives on Tuesday.

Haiti's government has few resources to help. Rescue convoys have been blocked by huge lakes that formed over every road into town. Associated Press journalists rode in with the first group of UN troops to reach the city aboard Zodiac boats.