THURSDAY MORNING HURRICANE HANNA UPDATE

Tropical Storm Hanna churned across the Bahamas and toward the U.S. coast on Thursday, while Hurricane Ike, an "extremely dangerous" Category 4 hurricane, roared farther out in the Atlantic, its destination a mystery.

Hanna was about 770 miles south-southeast of Wilmington, North Carolina, at 5 a.m. ET Thursday, according to the National Hurricane Center.

It was expected to pass just east of the Bahamas on Thursday and to reach the U.S. coast by Friday night, the center said.

A hurricane watch was in effect from Surf City, North Carolina, just north of Wilmington, to near Edisto Beach, South Carolina, between Charleston and Hilton Head. See Hanna's projected path »

Hanna's maximum sustained winds had picked up to near 70 mph, just short of hurricane intensity, the center said, and it could become a hurricane before reaching the U.S.

The eye of Tropical Storm Hanna passed over the Haitian city of Gonaives on Tuesday night, leaving water more than 12 feet deep in some places, according to the deputy coordinator of the civil protection service. Watch devastating floods in Haiti »

Haitian officials put the nation's death toll in the wake of Hanna and Hurricane Gustav at 61, Abel Nabaire said.

On Wednesday, Haitian President Rene Preval appealed for international help in the wake of "catastrophic" flooding that left eight of the country's 10 departments underwater, Nabaire said.

Meanwhile, Hurricane Ike, still hundreds of miles from the islands of the Caribbean, was a powerful Category 4 hurricane early Thursday, packing winds of 145 mph, the center said.

Forecasters called the storm "extremely dangerous" as it galloped along in the open waters of the Atlantic Ocean. The hurricane center's five-day forecast map shows Ike arriving near the Turks and Caicos Islands and the southeastern Bahamas on Sunday, but the center's advisory said, "It is too early to determine what land areas might eventually be affected by Ike." See the path Ike might follow »

Hurricane storm tracks are unpredictable and subject to change, especially several days in advance.


At 5 a.m., the storm was about 550 miles northeast of the Leeward Islands, moving west-northwest near 17 mph.

Farther out in the Atlantic, Tropical Storm Josephine trailed Ike by about 1,600 miles, packing winds of 60 mph.