Bonnie and Charley present the kind of worst-case scenario state emergency workers train for — a tropical system moving across inland South Carolina from the Gulf of Mexico one day before another system hits the coast.

Fortunately, this doesn’t appear to be the true worst case. The National Hurricane Center expects Bonnie won’t linger long enough to deluge inland counties as it zips across the state tonight. And Charley is forecast to be a relatively weak tropical storm as it skirts the coast Saturday.

That doesn’t mean South Carolinians can ignore either storm. Inland residents should make sure they have fresh batteries in their flashlights, just in case Bonnie’s winds knock limbs into power lines. People who live in flood-prone areas or in mobile homes might want to spend tonight with a friend in more stable surroundings. And residents of coastal islands should keep abreast of any changes in Charley today and Friday, emergency officials said.

But state officials don’t think any problems caused by one storm will overlap those caused by the other.

“What we’re told is they’re not going to interact,” said Joe Farmer, spokesman for the S.C. Emergency Management Division. “One will come and it will go, and the second will come and it will go.”

Tom Prin, a planner with the Horry County Emergency Management Department, said the two storms do add a twist to decision-making.

“There may be a limited window between the storms to get anything done,” Prin said.

Like Farmer, Prin is reluctant to use the word “evacuation” before one is necessary.

If conditions change and Charley becomes more threatening, a voluntary evacuation request for barrier islands could go out as late as Friday morning, Prin said. But that would give residents and visitors much less than the ideal 48-hour lead time.

Of course, if they leave Thursday and head west, they might run into Bonnie.

“Although we don’t expect Bonnie to have any impact here, we have to factor that in,” Prin said.

Central South Carolina could begin feeling the effects of Bonnie late today, said Jason Caldwell, forecaster with the state climate office.

Bonnie is expected to come ashore in the Florida Panhandle without reaching hurricane status of sustained 74 mph winds. By the time the system reaches South Carolina, it could have isolated gusts of 50 mph at its center, Caldwell said.

Winds will be much less over most of the state, and rainfall is expected to range from 2-4 inches in the center of the track to 1-3 inches on the outskirts.

On Tuesday, the National Hurricane Center’s five-day forecast had Charley taking a similar track as Bonnie. But on Wednesday, the storm turned northwest sooner than expected. Charley likely will cross the Florida peninsula on Friday and hustle up the Atlantic coast early Saturday.

The storm’s center could be anywhere from central Georgia to 200 miles offshore Saturday morning. Hilton Head Island was at the center of that margin of error late Wednesday.

The good news for South Carolina is that storms that take Charley’s projected path historically lose their steam over Florida. They only regenerate into powerful storms if they linger over the Atlantic. But Charley is supposed to stay over the Atlantic for only a few hours Saturday as a weather trough along the coast whisks it north, Caldwell said.

Reach Holleman at (803) 771-8366 or jholleman@thestate.com.