Quick-moving Hanna drops torrents of rain

NORTH MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. -- With a fearsome Hurricane Ike not far in its wake, Tropical Storm Hanna cruised ashore early Saturday, bringing soaking rains and near-hurricane force winds to the Carolina coast but doing little immediate damage before pivoting quickly up the Eastern Seaboard.

Officials in South Carolina and North Carolina said they had received no reports of deaths or injuries as by midday Saturday.

Both states experienced isolated flooding, downed trees and beach erosion. Some 53,000 customers had power failures in North Carolina, many of them inland where rain was heaviest, and 1,300 lost electricity in South Carolina. About 2,000 people spent the night in shelters in the two states.

"It's been an awning here, a satellite dish there," said Kelly L. Brosky, a spokeswoman for Horry County, which includes North Myrtle Beach. "Given that inland areas got 5 to 6 inches of rain, the flooding really hasn't been anything major."

The storm reached the Washington metropolitan area by midday, producing torrential rains. In Virginia, about 55,000 people were left without power as power lines went down with felled trees. Flash floods and accidents caused the authorities to close more than 100 roads, and about 100 people were in shelters in the southeastern part of the state.

In Washington, about 500 homes and businesses were left without power, but no flash floods were reported.

Though not debilitating, the storm extended a two-week assault by tropical weather systems on the coastal South that began with Tropical Storm Fay's soggy slog through Florida and continued with Hurricane Gustav's landfall in Louisiana.

The region had seen a relative respite since 2005, the year of hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

Hanna moved quickly, at 20 mph, not lingering long enough to drop the kind of rain required for heavy flooding. Much of the region has been suffering from drought, making the 3 to 6 inches that fell in some areas welcome.