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Jeanne could affect state
early in week
The Associated
Press
CHARLESTON n Hurricane Jeanne trekked west
toward the Bahamas and Florida on Friday while residents
hundreds of miles north in South Carolina closely
watched the storm.
The hurricane, a Category 2
storm packing 100 mph winds, was expected to brush the
east coast of Florida and turn north then northeast
during the weekend.
A Friday morning advisory
from the National Hurricane Center projected the storm
would move along the South Carolina coast throughout the
day Monday.
But the advisory warned track
errors four days out can be several hundred miles.
Advisories on Thursday projected the storm making
landfall farther south along the South Carolina
coast.
Lowcountry residents should watch the
storm "very closely through the next few days," said
Cathy Haynes, Charleston County emergency preparedness
deputy director.
Earlier, heavy rains from Jeanne
killed more than 1,100 people in Haiti and about as many
were still missing.
The National Weather Service
in Charleston said conditions could deteriorate Monday
with wind gusts as high as 80 mph along the state's
beaches.
"There's so much uncertainty in that
forecast," said hurricane center meteorologist Dan
Brown. "It could actually turn up the east coast of
Florida and affect the entire Southeast coast. If it
moves into Florida and stays over land, it could be a
lot weaker."
"It's going to be pretty close
somewhere on either side of the coast," said Richard
Thacker, senior forecaster with the Charleston weather
service office.
Brown said forecasters should
have a better idea of the track by Saturday.
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 during the
same hurricane season.
Hurricane Charley and
Tropical Storm Gaston made landfall in Charleston County
this year while the remnants of Bonnie tracked into the
state after that storm made landfall in the Gulf of
Mexico.
The fringes of Hurricanes Frances and
Ivan also brought heavy rain, tornadoes and damage,
although the center of those storms did not track
through the state.
Information from: The Post and
Courier, http://www.charleston.net/
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