Gaston hits S.C. coast near Charleston After lashing the S.C. coast Sunday, Tropical Storm Gaston was expected to move through central and Eastern North Carolina early today, bringing heavy rains, winds and fears of tornadoes.

Although its perimeter bands soaked parts of the Charlotte region Sunday, forecasters predicted Gaston (pronounced gas-TOHN) would not affect most of the area today.

That doesn't mean it will be dry. A cold front from Tennessee is expected to bring showers throughout the day.

And more wet weather could be on the way. Hurricane Frances, a Category 3 storm with 125 mph winds, may hit the southeastern United States next weekend.

As of 8 p.m. Sunday, Frances was about 480 miles east of the north Leeward Islands. Forecasters said it was too early to predict the storm's specific path.

National Hurricane Center officials also announced the season's eighth named storm has formed. At 5 p.m. Sunday, Tropical Storm Hermine was about 325 miles southeast of Cape Hatteras. Its winds were blowing at 40 mph, and the storm was moving northwest at nearly 10 mph as of 9 p.m., but wasn't expected to affect the Carolinas. Forecasters predicted it would head toward the Northeast.

Gaston made landfall near McClellanville, a small fishing village brushed by Hurricane Charley earlier this month when it came ashore for a second time after devastating southwest Florida, The Associated Press reported. Fifteen years ago, McClellanville, about 40 northeast of Charleston, was devastated by Hurricane Hugo.

With sustained winds of 70 mph and gusts of up to 81 mph, Gaston toppled trees and power poles, knocking out electricity to more than 125,000 S.C. Electric & Gas Co. customers. The company has a total of 577,000 customers.

By 5 p.m. Sunday, about 95,000 people remained without power. Company spokesman Robin Montgomery was not sure when electricity would be restored.

"There's a significant amount of tree damage," he said, adding crews were still assessing the hardest hit areas Sunday afternoon. "We've had so much rain in the past few days that the ground it totally saturated."

The majority of outages occurred in the Mount Pleasant area just north of Charleston, where Hurricane Charley knocked out power to 32,000 people.

S.C. officials were not sure how the beaches fared through Sunday's storm, but they were optimistic little erosion occurred because of the way Gaston landed, coming in north of Charleston.

That likely helped the beaches because the winds would circle around and blow from the land toward the water -- keeping waves from taking sand away, said Bill Eiser, staff oceanographer for the state's Ocean and Coastal Resource Management office.

"I talked to somebody who lives in Pawleys Island and they said there was no appreciable beach erosion," said Eiser, who had not had the chance to see the coast Sunday night. "If Pawleys Island is OK, then I'm guessing everything north of it is OK, too."

Isle of Palms Mayor Michael Sottile said Sunday night there were plenty of tree limbs and other debris down, but few erosion problems.

"This one was a little worse than Charley was," because Gaston lingered longer, he said. "But we survived."

Gaston also brought more than 8 inches of rain, flooding sections of Charleston. But areas farther north of the landfall escaped with relatively little damage.

Winds and rain began to fall on the Surfside Beach area of South Carolina on Saturday night, but by Sunday afternoon, few spots were flooded and there was only minor tree damage.

Beach-goers spent Sunday hunting shells along the shore under gray skies and the watchful eyes of Officer Dave Butler, a member of the beach patrol.

Butler kept people out of the water, but otherwise left vacationers to salvage what they could of their day at the beach.

Among those braving the winds was George Williams, who said he drove 13 hours from Kingston, N.Y., with his wife and three young children for a weeklong stay. He and son Hunter, 5, built a sandcastle near a pier about 1 p.m.

"I don't care (about the wind), I can handle myself," Hunter said. "I like the rain."

Katrina King didn't know the weather was going to be so nasty until relatives started calling her after she arrived from Kannapolis on Saturday.

"They all kept on asking `Are y'all staying?' " she said Sunday. "Everything they are seeing on TV seems like a big deal. It really isn't."

John Legare of the state Emergency Management told the AP about 30 people had sought refuge in five shelters in coastal counties as Gaston approached.

The storm's hitting on a weekend made it easier for officials because there was no morning rush hour to contend with, Lt. Morgan Shannon of the Charleston County Sheriff's Department told the AP.

S.C. Gov. Mark Sanford told the AP each storm is different, and dealing with Charley two weeks ago was different from dealing with Gaston.

As Charley approached, Sanford ordered a mandatory evacuation of areas east of U.S. 17 Business in Georgetown and Horry counties.

"Charley has some evacuation elements to it that just didn't exist with a tropical depression," which spawned Gaston, Sanford told the AP. "They were very different storms. If you look at Charley you didn't know when it came back over the Gulf Stream if it was going to jet back up to a Category 2 or a Category 3."

Gaston weakened as it moved inland, but prompted flood and tornado watches in several Pee Dee counties and brought rains deeper inland to parts of the Midlands.

The N.C. Emergency Management Division put several swift-water rescue teams on standby and Gov. Mike Easley activated 30 National Guard soldiers equipped with high clearance vehicles should flooding occur in low-lying areas of central and Eastern North Carolina.

Rainfall of up to 6 inches could hit south-central North Carolina, the National Weather Service reported. Most of it was expected after the center of the storm moves into the state late Sunday and early today, forecasters said.

Two tornadoes were reported near Raeford west of Fayetteville Sunday afternoon, said NWS meteorologist Bob Bruce.

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OTHER STORMS

7A | Hurricane Frances may hit the Southeast next weekend. A new tropical storm, Hermine, isn't expected to affect the Carolinas. See a map of their forecast paths.

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