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Sep 2, 2008 6:00 pm US/Central
Hanna Kills 13 In Haiti, Heads For U.S.
SAINT-MARC, Haiti (CBS News) ―
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Hanna's movement is seen here Tuesday morning. Forecasters say the storm is on track for the east coast of Florida, Georgia or South Carolina.
CBS
Families clutched mattresses, chairs and other belongings and slogged through waist-high floodwaters Tuesday as Tropical Storm Hanna killed at least 13 people in northern Haiti. The slow-moving storm threatened to hit the southeastern U.S. coast as a hurricane within days.
In Florida, Gov. Charlie Crist issued a state of emergency Tuesday to more easily mobilize emergency responders if Hanna hits the state. But forecasters warned that he entire U.S. East Coast should keep close watch.
Hanna's maximum sustained winds slipped to 70 mph, but the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said it could regain hurricane strength and turn toward "the east coast of Florida, Georgia or South Carolina in two to three days."
Heavy rain from the storm's outer bans fell relentlessly in Haiti, a country still recovering from drenchings by Hurricane Gustav and Tropical Storm Fay in the past two weeks. In all, floods and mudslides from the three storms have killed more than 100 people as Haiti's deforested hills melted away in the torrential rains.
"The situation is as bad as it can be," said Vadre Louis, a U.N. official in the coastal city Gonaives. "The wind is ripping up trees. Houses are flooded with water. Cars can't drive on the street. You can't rescue anyone, wherever they may be."
A U.N. aid convoy left Port-au-Prince with relief supplies including inflatable boats to rescue people stranded on rooftops.
Flooding also was blamed for the drowning death of a Colombian university student in a raging river in Puerto Rico, where the man's Brazilian friend was missing despite a desperate search in the water.
Churning slowly through the southern Bahamas on Tuesday, Hanna swirled over the island of Great Inagua for hours, toppling power lines but otherwise doing little damage. There were reports of heavy winds stripping shingles from roofs and knocking down trees, but no injuries, said Chrystal Glinton, a spokeswoman for the Bahamas' National Emergency Management Agency.
"Everyone is alive and well," Glinton said. "The damages have been minimal."
The same could not be said for Haiti, a country particularly vulnerable to devastating floods because of its steep terrain and hills that have been deforested for agriculture and by peasants who burn trees for charcoal.
In the fertile Artibonite Valley, rice fields were flooded and farm animals huddled on small plots of dry land. In the village of L'Ester, Wilson Elie, a local official, said rain had overwhelmed his community and he pleaded for government help.
"The people cannot live in water," Elie said.
Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Ike was cruising westward across the Atlantic with top winds of 60 mph, projected to near the Bahamas by Sunday as a hurricane. Just behind it was Tropical Storm Josephine, with top winds of about 40 mph, and forecasters said it could near hurricane force by Wednesday or Thursday.
And in the Pacific, Tropical Storm Karina formed south of Mexico's Baja California Peninsula with sustained winds of 40 mph, on a path leading far out to sea.
(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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