Hanna breezes through area

About 10,000 North Carolina residents - including nearly 200 local residents - were still without power Saturday night as Tropical Storm Hanna swept across the Chesapeake Bay.

Hanna first made landfall near Little River, S.C., early Saturday morning, swiftly moving north, where it dropped heavy rains along the East Coast.

Lenoir County Emergency Management Director Roger Dail said Kinston received more than 2 inches of rain from the storm, which did not cause any major property damage in the region.

"There were a few sporadic power outages and some trees were knocked down by the high winds," Dail said.

According to Accuweather meteorologist Dave Samuhel, total rainfall amounts varied throughout the region.

"The higher rainfall totals were west of Kinston," Samuhel said. 

Samuhel said Southern Pines received 6 inches of rain while Raleigh received 4 inches. Goldsboro, Kinston, Greenville and New Bern all registered more than an inch of rainfall from the storm.

Neuse River water levels will continue to rise this week after Hanna dumped heavy rains west of Kinston.

There was some minor local flooding in both Lenoir and Greene counties Saturday. The National Weather Service issued several flood warnings Saturday for areas - including Wake County - that received more rain than Kinston.

NWS officials don't expect any flooding in Kinston next week from Hanna.

Kinston's Neuse River flood stage is 14 feet. NWS forecaster Sarah Jamison said water levels in Kinston's Neuse River could reach 11 feet by Thursday.

It takes about nine days for the waters in the Neuse River upstream near Raleigh to reach Kinston, she said. The Neuse River's water level in Kinston could rise to 6 feet today.

Hanna's gusty winds and heavy rains knocked out over 3,000 Progress Energy customers' electricity in Lenoir County on Saturday.

By 8 a.m., 3,800 customers were without electricity in Lenoir County, Progress Energy spokesman Mike Hughes said. By 4 p.m., 180 Lenoir County residents still did not have power.

Additional Progress Energy work crews were called in from western North Carolina this weekend to assist with restoring power to areas hit hardest by Hanna. Hughes said about 55,000 Progress Energy customers statewide reported they had lost electricity during the storm Saturday.

About 300 Progress Energy customers in Greene County reported they had lost power while 160 Jones County residents reported power outages Saturday.

"The heavy rain and strong winds are a one - two punch," Hughes said. "Most of our power outages were caused by trees blown over by the wind."

Dail said Hanna brought wind gusts of 50 mph to the region.

Customers first reported power outages in the pre-dawn hours when the storm first struck Kinston just after 5 a.m. Saturday. About 1,000 Progress Energy customers in South Carolina also experienced power outages during the storm.

Both Greene County Sheriff Lemmie Smith and Greene County Emergency Management Director Randy Skinner said heavy rain and winds from Hanna hit Snow Hill at about 7 a.m. Saturday. There were no reported injuries related to the storm in either Lenoir or Greene counties, officials said.

"We were lucky," Skinner said. "There wasn't any major damage from the storm."

Smith said many Greene County residents stayed off roadways during the storm. Officials reported minor property damage in Ormondsville after a tree collapsed on an abandoned business. A home along N.C. 58 sustained heavy damage when a tree collapsed on it, Skinner said.

Lenoir Community College opened a storm shelter on its campus Friday night. The Red Cross and the county's Department of Social Services managed the shelter overnight. Dail said around 49 people stayed at the shelter Friday night seeking refuge from Hanna.

None were at the shelter as of 10 a.m. Saturday, Dail said.

Chris Lavender can be reached at (252) 559-1078 or clavender@freedomen.com.