Tropical Storm Hanna sloshed ashore along the US Atlantic Coast between the border of South and North Carolina early this morning, the US National Hurricane Centre said.
Hanna, packing winds just shy of Category 1 hurricane strength, was forecast to move rapidly northeast along the East Coast during the weekend, bringing heavy rains and a risk of flash flooding to the mid-Atlantic states and southern New England.
More than 3 inches of rain had already fallen in South Carolina.
"We have been incredibly fortunate," North Carolina emergency management spokeswoman Jill Lucas said. "We have had no significant damage. We have had some trees down and local flooding but nothing significant."
More than 53,000 homes were without power at one point, but the situation was improving, Lucas said.
Hanna was about 65 miles west-southwest of Norfolk, Virginia, by 11am (3pm Irish time) and was sprinting to the north-northeast at 24 miles per hour), the hurricane centre said. Its top sustained winds had dipped to 50 kph.
Meanwhile Hurricane Ike weakened today but is still menacing Cuba and the Gulf of Mexico as a potentially ferocious storm.
The densely populated Miami-Fort Lauderdale area in south Florida is in the line of fire from Ike, a Category 2 hurricane, and visitors were ordered to flee the vulnerable Florida Keys island chain from today.
"We're not out of the woods by any stretch of the imagination," Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Alvarez said.
Computer models indicated Ike was increasingly likely to target Cuba as a "major" Category 3 hurricane on the five-step Saffir-Simpson intensity scale, presenting a severe threat to the crumbling colonial buildings of Havana.
The storm might then curve into the Gulf of Mexico in the wake of this week's Hurricane Gustav, ploughing toward an area that produces a quarter of domestic US oil, and slamming ashore near New Orleans, which was catastrophically hit by Hurricane Katrina three years ago.
The deeper Ike goes into Cuba, the weaker it will be once it re-emerges over the Gulf of Mexico early next week, the US National Hurricane Centre said.
"By day four, Ike is forecast to emerge back over open waters in the southeastern Gulf of Mexico," the Miami-based agency said. "Global models suggest the environment will be favourable for strengthening and the ocean should be plenty warm."
Reuters