Ike Gains Steam as Category 4 Hurricane; Hanna Heads for the U.S.
Ike became a Category 4 hurricane in the open Atlantic yesterday as it gained strength rapidly, and Tropical Storm Hanna intensified to a lesser degree as it swirled over the Bahamas toward the southeast U.S. Coast.
Growing in the space of a few hours from a tropical storm to an intense Category 4 hurricane on the five-step Saffir-Simpson intensity scale, Ike posed no immediate threat to land but strengthened explosively.
Ike had top sustained winds near 145 mph (230 kph) as it swept across the open waters of the west-central Atlantic 550 miles (885 km) northeast of the Leeward Islands, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said. It was moving west-northwest near 17 mph (28 kph).
Ike was forecast to head for the southern Bahamas early next week but it was too early to tell whether it would threaten land, the forecasters said. It was also too soon to say whether Ike would threaten U.S. oil and natural gas producers in the Gulf of Mexico.
Hanna's torrential rains had already submerged parts of Haiti, stranding residents on rooftops and prompting President Rene Preval to warn of an "extraordinary catastrophe" to rival a storm that killed more than 3,000 people in the flood-prone Caribbean country four years ago.
Hanna was forecast to move over the central and northern Bahamas on Thursday, strengthening back into a hurricane with winds of at least 74 mph before hitting the U.S. coast near the North Carolina-Virginia border on Saturday.
Published on September 4, 2008
Are you retail Agent Looking for a Quote?