Hurricane Ike threatens Bahamas, Hanna toll grows

By Joseph Guyler Delva

GONAIVES, Haiti (Reuters) - Powerful Hurricane Ike weakened slightly as it charged across the Atlantic toward the Bahamas and the United States on Thursday while Tropical Storm Hanna's death toll from floods in Haiti grew to 90.

Campgrounds were closed and some evacuations began on North Carolina's Outer Banks as Hanna churned east of the far-flung Bahamian chain of 700 islands on a path toward the southeastern U.S. states on Saturday.

Ike posed no immediate threat to land and it was too early to say if it would threaten Caribbean islands, the U.S. East Coast or the U.S. oil fields in the Gulf of Mexico. Tropical Storm Josephine churned in Ike's wake across the Atlantic.

The trio of Atlantic storms followed Hurricane Gustav's rampage through the Caribbean to the Louisiana coast, where it slammed ashore on Monday west of New Orleans, largely sparing the city devastated by Hurricane Katrina three years ago.

The flurry was a clear signal that this six-month hurricane season was on track to be a ferociously busy one, though not like record-busting 2005 when 28 tropical storms, including Katrina, rolled across the Atlantic and Caribbean.

HAITI TOLL RISES

In the Haitian port city of Gonaives, residents roamed the streets hunting for food as floodwaters that had trapped hundreds on rooftops receded, leaving behind deep piles of mud and the carcasses of goats, pigs and dogs.

Crowds of people knocked on the windows of passing cars, pleading for food and water.

"I have nothing to eat," resident Jean Pierre Moreau said. "No food, no water, and no one seems to be able to help."

At least 90 people died in floods and mudslides triggered by Hanna, 37 in the Gonaives area alone, Haiti's civil protection office said.

Hanna was the third deadly storm to strike Haiti in weeks. Gustav previously killed at least 75 people and Tropical Storm Fay killed more than 50.

President Rene Preval called the situation "catastrophic," comparing it to floods from Tropical Storm Jeanne in September 2004 that killed more than 3,000 people around Gonaives.

Hanna weakened slightly on Thursday. Its top sustained winds were at 65 mph (105 kph) and the U.S. National Hurricane Center expected it to remain below the hurricane threshold of 74 mph (120 kph) through landfall around the South Carolina-North Carolina border early Saturday.

North Carolina Gov. Mike Easley declared a state of emergency and his South Carolina counterpart, Mark Sanford, advised people in two northern coastal counties to evacuate. Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine also declared a state of emergency.

On North Carolina's fragile Outer Banks, beachgoers took advantage of sunny skies and light winds, but the National Park Service closed campgrounds on Ocracoke and Hatteras islands and a mandatory evacuation of isolated Cape Lookout National Seashore was under way.