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Jeanne could hit Florida, then move north to S.C.

Jeanne's path

Five storms have affected South Carolina during this seemingly endless 2004 hurricane season and it may not be over yet.

Still another storm, Hurricane Jeanne, which on Thursday was spinning east of the Bahamas, could affect the state by early next week, forecasters warned.

A Thursday morning advisory from the National Hurricane Center showed Jeanne, which was a Category 2 storm with winds of 100 mph, was forecast to make landfall in Florida, turn out to sea and then make a second landfall Monday along the South Carolina coast.

That changed by Thursday afternoon, when the storm remained on track for Florida but then generally following the coast northeast to North Carolina by early next week. That would put the storm just east of The T&D Region sometime late Monday.

Yet the same models indicate it could veer east out to sea sharply enough to stay off the coast altogether, or move as far inland as East Tennessee.

The Hurricane Center cautioned that errors in a four-day forecast are large, averaging almost 290 miles.

If Jeanne were to hit, it would be the first time in at least 150 years that three named tropical systems have made landfall on the South Carolina coast in the same hurricane season.

Two have already made landfall in Charleston County n Hurricane Charley and Tropical Storm Gaston, while the remnants of Bonnie also tracked into the state after that storm made landfall on the Gulf of Mexico.

The edges of hurricanes Frances and Ivan also brought heavy rains, tornadoes and damage to South Carolina, even though the center of those storms did not track through the state.

The National Weather Service issued an advisory that tropical storm conditions were possible along the coast on Sunday. Forecasters also warned that dangerous surf and rip currents could develop during the coming days.

"It's supposed to blow pretty hard," said Ian Riggs, surfing instructor at McKevlin's Surf Shop on Folly Beach. "It's definitely not going to be a good time to be swimming."

While skies have been sunny this week along the coast, strong winds have eroded some beaches.

High tide swells eroded dunes at Folly Beach on Monday, said Bill Eiser, an oceanographer with the state Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management.

"Anytime we have a strong wind out of the northeast we have the waves build up and the wind pushes them farther in," Eiser said.