Then Frances wanted a piece of the action, too.

The once-powerful hurricane's far-reaching fan of wind and rain brushed the area with only minor damage Tuesday, but it wasn't so kind to other parts of the state.

Tropical Depression Frances spun off reports of more than two dozen tornadoes, mostly across central South Carolina, where weak twisters sporadically buffeted a few homes and trees before retreating into the clouds.

A tornado briefly touched down about 11:10 a.m. near Northwoods Mall in North Charleston, causing some minor tree damage, according to the National Weather Service.

In all, more than 30 tornado warnings had been issued statewide by late Tuesday afternoon.

No deaths were immediately blamed on the storm, but at least six injuries were reported, none major.

There were no reports of widespread flooding, but an additional 2 to 4 inches of rain were expected across most of the state, the National Weather Service said.

The worst weather has moved steadily north and west through a storm-weary state dealing with its fourth tropical system in the past five weeks. Besides Charley and Gaston, which made landfall north of Charleston, the remnants of Bonnie soaked the state in August, too.

The heaviest reported damage from Frances was in southern Sumter County. About 30 homes were damaged, including a brick home turned off its foundation, and three people were injured about 8:30 a.m. by an apparent tornado, Public Safety Director Vic Jones said.

Several other homes and an office building also were damaged in Sumter County, causing an estimated $1.7 million in damage, Jones said.

George Bartlette, who lives in Sumter County, said he saw a group of trees flattened, then no damage, then a couple of mobile homes blown around.

"It's just hitting in spots, you know," Bartlette said.

Two people were hurt about 5 a.m., when high winds damaged two mobile homes near Gadsden in southeastern Richland County near Columbia, said George Rice, spokesman for Richland County EMS.

High winds damaged 22 homes at Fort Jackson in Columbia, but most of the damage was confined to roofs. Six homes were left uninhabitable, said James Hinnant, spokesman for the Army training base.

Other possible tornado damage was reported in Kershaw, Darlington, Lee and Marlboro counties.

The storms were so scattered that none of the state's major utilities reported any widespread outages.

The funnel cloud that moved through North Charleston reportedly was seen passing over Goose Creek minutes later, National Weather Service meteorologist Steven Taylor said. A few small trees were toppled near the mall and the U.S. Highway 52 connector, North Charleston police spokesman Spencer Pryor said. There was no damage reported in Goose Creek, spokeswoman Casey Fletcher said.

A weakening Tropical Depression Frances was expected to be spinning along the northern Alabama-Georgia border at daybreak today, then get caught up in a cold front and sweep up the East Coast, Taylor said.

Showers and thunderstorms remain a threat today with conditions gradually returning to the typical summertime pattern by week's end -- hot and humid with highs in the 80s, Taylor said.

Meanwhile, lurking in the Caribbean is powerful Hurricane Ivan, the fourth major hurricane of the season.

"There is still a lot of uncertainty in what it's going to do, even at five days," said Robert Molleda, a meteorologist with the National Hurricane Center.

Computer tracks have it going from as far west as the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico to directly into Florida, he said.

Key is a high-pressure ridge directly to its north that is pushing it steadily westward. By the fourth or fifth day, the high-pressure system is expected to weaken and a weak trough across south-central United States will begin to affect it, but forecasters are uncertain how.

The models are reacting differently to the same general features, Molleda said.

This is similar to what happened with Frances, he said.

Forecasters were accurate predicting where Frances would go, but "you can't guarantee that with every storm. We are just going to have to watch it day after day to see what the trends are," he said.

Before it began, forecasters predicted a more-active season.

"I guess that's being verified," Molleda said.

The forecast was for 12-15 named storms, six to eight becoming hurricanes and two to four becoming major hurricanes.

"We've got our four major and we're up to nine storms," Molleda said. The season peaks Friday.

The four major storms have been Alex, Charley, Frances and now Ivan, which thrashed the Windward Islands on Tuesday with top winds of 120 mph before moving into the Caribbean Sea.

The National Hurricane Center is watching two tropical waves behind Ivan.

In other storm-related events, Santee Cooper on Sunday finished replacing rocks on the Pinopolis Dam displaced by Tropical Storm Gaston on Aug. 29.

The storm produced large waves for an extended period, exposing some clay to erosion and causing small rocks and boulders to shift, mostly on the western section of the dam closest to Moncks Corner.

"The dam was and continues to be structurally sound and safe," Santee Cooper vice president of corporate communications Laura Varn said. "There was never a threat to the citizens."

Crews from the state-owned electric and water utility worked around the clock for a week to replace rocks and boulders.

This was not the first time rocks have shifted from wind-whipped waves on the dam. The Moncks Corner-based utility had to replace rocks in 1999 after Hurricane Floyd and in 1993 after a large winter storm.

The Berkeley County Water and Sanitation Authority also is dealing with the aftermath of Gaston. On Tuesday, its contractor, DRC, began collecting limbs, leaves and other debris piled on rights of way throughout the county.

Residents with questions about storm-debris removal should call 572-4400, 761-8817 or 567-2061.

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