NASSAU, Bahamas — Tropical storm Hanna knocked out power to the southern Bahamas on Wednesday and officials from Nassau to South Carolina warned residents to prepare for possible evacuations as it moves north and grows into a hurricane.
The storm, packing 95 km/h winds, turned to the northwest after lingering for days near Haiti, where it caused flooding that killed 26 people.
Bahamas National Security Minister Tommy Turnquest cancelled all leave for the Bahamas Royal Defence Force to keep soldiers on standby for disaster response.
"I now urge the general public to take the necessary precautions," Turnquest said at a news conference Wednesday.
As Hanna took aim at the heart of this Atlantic archipelago, islanders were also tracking two other storms churning westward in the open ocean — hurricane Ike and tropical storm Josephine.
"We’ve got three of them on the way. We’ve just got to be prepared," said Frank Augustine, 47, a convenience store manager, as he bought 10 large water jugs under blue skies at a Nassau depot.
Only a few dozen of the Bahamas’ roughly 700 islands are inhabited, but they are near sea level and have little natural protection. In the south, Hanna knocked out electricity in Mayaguana Island and forced the closure of some small airports including those in Long Island and Acklins Island.
The storm was expected to pass near or over the central Bahamas on Thursday before reaching hurricane strength. But the National Hurricane Center in Miami warned its reach was expanding, with tropical-storm force winds extending up to 465 kilometres from the centre.
"Hanna has become a large tropical cyclone," the centre said.
On Wednesday afternoon, the storm was centred just southwest of the Turks and Caicos Islands. It was moving north-northwest at 16 km/h and was forecast to pick up speed over the next day.
Long-range forecasts call for the storm to hit anywhere from Georgia to North Carolina on Saturday and curve along the U.S. Atlantic coast. On Wednesday, South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford said he was returning from the Republican convention in Minnesota to deal with the storm.
The storm has drenched the Turks and Caicos and Puerto Rico but wreaked the most havoc in storm-weary Haiti, where it flooded the western city of Gonaives.
Ike became a hurricane Wednesday as it sped toward the northern Caribbean with maximum sustained winds of near 112 km/h. The hurricane centre said it was too early to determine what areas might be directly affected by Ike.
Following behind was Josephine, which grew stronger, with top winds near 100 km/h.
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