Hanna leaves power outage, little other damage

Wind gusts of more than 50 mph left thousands without power Saturday morning, but tropical storm Hanna only dropped about an inch of rain on New Bern when it moved through Eastern North Carolina. Officials said flooding was not a problem and no injuries were reported in Craven, Jones and Pamlico counties.

The storm downed trees from Dover to Vanceboro and New Bern to Havelock. Several trees fell on houses, including one that caused several hundred dollars' worth of damage to a house in Maysville. Many cleaned up only small limbs and said they would now closely watch Hurricane Ike, which was a Category 2 storm moving toward the Turks and Caicos Islands north of Haiti.

"I think we fared real well with Hanna, understanding it could have been much worse, and there was nothing catastrophic countywide," said Stanley Kite, the Craven County Emergency Management Services director.

Utility workers restored power to most people by the afternoon, and officials said others should have electricity by the end of today. City of New Bern crews reduced the number of outages from 5,000 to 50 by the afternoon, said Jon Rynne, the utilities director.

Lisa Galizia, the communications director for the Carteret-Craven Electric Cooperative, said almost all 4,000 customers who lost power had it again. Jeff Brooks, a spokesman for Progress Energy, said about 4,600 in Craven, Jones and Pamlico counties were still without power.

"Many of those will be restored by 6 p.m. Sunday, and we made major progress Saturday," Brooks said. "We had a bit more wind impact in New Bern than other areas, but the interesting thing about the storm was to see how many were impacted west of here."

Hanna made landfall near the South Carolina border at 3:20 a.m., more than a week after it formed in the Atlantic before circling its own path near the Bahamas and dumping rain on the east coast of Florida. Meteorologists with the National Weather Service in Newport said 4 to 6 inches of rain fell in many counties along Interstate 95, but only an inch and a quarter fell at the Coastal Carolina Regional Airport in New Bern.

The highest wind gust at the airport was 56 mph at 7:54 a.m., and the conditions caused Delta and U.S. Airways flight cancellations during the morning and early afternoon. Flights were back on schedule at 2:35 p.m. when a plane left for Charlotte, airport director Tom Braaten said. By that time, Hanna had completely moved into Virginia.

In the afternoon, Gov. Mike Easley said flooding is still possible from with rivers that rose after several inches of rain in the central part of the state. Slocum Creek and the Tucker Creek tributaries in the Havelock area were higher than normal, but there was no flooding, said Diane Miller, a spokeswoman for the city. There were no problems with an 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew late Friday and early Saturday, Miller said.

"But we had a couple of complaints from businesses open through those hours," she said. "A civic group doing bingo until 2 o'clock in the morning also complained."

Carol Tyndall, the Jones County emergency management director, said she saw only shingles off roofs near Wyse Fork and trees down in Trenton. She said she was going home to get rest after several busy days.

"From all indications, we got along really good, and we had some really good cooperation from EMS and law enforcement officers," Tyndall said. "We're now going to watch Ike until we know that thing's gone. You never know what they're going to do."

Mark Willis, a meteorologist with the Weather Service, said Ike will make area waters unsafe the next several days. But Willis said current forecasts show the storm will not directly hit North Carolina.

Hanna by the numbers:

•  Weather

Landfall - 3:20 a.m. near the North Carolina and South Carolina border

Maximum winds at landfall - 70 mph

Peak wind gusts in New Bern - about 8 a.m.

Highest wind gust recorded in New Bern - 56 mph at 7:54 a.m.

Recorded rainfall in New Bern - 1.23 inches

Storm eye moves out of North Carolina - around noon

•  Peak power outage reports

North Carolina - about 60,000

City of New Bern electric utilities - 5,000

Carteret-Craven Electric Cooperative - 4,000

Progress Energy:

Craven County - about 12,000

Jones County - about 500

Pamlico County - about 5,000

•  Shelters

North Carolina - 49 shelters, 1,900 people

Craven County - four shelters, 53 people

Jones County - one shelter, seven people

Pamlico County - one shelter, 66 people