Ernesto strengthens on path to Carolinas
Pastor Dale Morgan
Friday September 1, 3:43 AM Reuters*
Ernesto strengthens on path to Carolinas*
MIAMI (Reuters) - Tropical Storm Ernesto neared hurricane strength as it
closed in on the U.S. East Coast on Thursday, threatening North and
South Carolina with heavy rains and large waves.
Ernesto, which sloshed through Florida on Wednesday after briefly
becoming the Atlantic storm season's first hurricane near Haiti, had
sustained winds of 70 miles per hour (113 km per hour), just short of
the 74 mph (119 kph) needed for hurricane status, the U.S. National
Hurricane Centre said.
The Miami-based centre posted a hurricane watch from South Santee River
in South Carolina, to Cape Lookout in North Carolina, noting that
predicting a storm's intensity was difficult.
"Ernesto could strengthen a little more and reach the coast as a
hurricane," forecasters said in a statement.
At 2 p.m. (7 p.m. British time), Ernesto was located about 180 miles
(290 km) south-southwest of Wilmington, North Carolina, the hurricane
centre said. It was racing towards the north-northeast at about 17 mph
(27 kph).
North Carolina Gov. Mike Easley activated 150 National Guard soldiers
and said two rescue helicopters were standing by in case of flooding.
Neighbouring South Carolina activated 240 National Guard troops on Tuesday.
The storm's most likely track had it moving ashore near the North
Carolina-South Carolina border later on Thursday.
Hurricane Floyd, a Category 2 storm with winds near 104 mph (167 kph),
hit North Carolina in 1999. The storm killed 56 people and caused up to
$6 billion (3.2 billion pounds) worth of damage.
Ernesto had at one point been forecast to reach Florida as a potential
Category 3 storm on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale of hurricane
intensity, and its arrival south of Miami as a weak tropical storm
puzzled meteorologists.
There was little to clean up in Florida, where Ernesto proved a far cry
from Wilma and Katrina, two hurricanes that caused extensive damage last
year.
(Additional reporting by Jim Loney)