Local
Hanna to pass over Md., Va. on Saturday
By: Taryn Luntz
Examiner Staff Writer
September 5, 2008
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| Major Pete Landon, with the special operations command with the Maryland State Police, left, Lt. Col. Rob Turano, Chief of the Field Operations Bureau with the Maryland State Police, middle, and Superintendent Terrence Sheridan, with the Maryland State Police, right, talks before a briefing for the Governor and his cabinet on hurricane Gustav relief efforts and emergency management plans for oncoming storms at the Maryland Emergency Management Agency on Camp Fretterd Military Reservation in Reisterstown on Thursday September 4, 2008. Arianne Starnes/Examiner (Arianne Starnes/Baltimore Examiner) |
As of 5 p.m., the center was predicting the storm’s center wouldn’t stay offshore, as was earlier expected, but would pass over inland areas of Virginia and Maryland east of the Chesapeake Bay on Saturday. Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine declared a state of emergency Thursday morning, saying southeaster areas such as Hampton Roads are likely to be hardest hit.
“Virginians do need to prepare for this now as a serious storm,” Kaine said. “Current forecasts predict Hanna will bring tropical storm-force winds to Virginia, causing coastal flooding and the very real possibility of tornadoes and power outages.”
Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley on Thursday issued a limited emergency declaration for the Eastern Shore counties of Cecil, Kent, Queen Anne’s, Caroline, Talbot, Dorchester, Wicomico, Somerset and Worcester.
Both Kaine and O’Malley said the declarations were made as precautionary measures to allow the states to have extra emergency personnel on hand, but that they did not anticipate the storm to be devastating.
But local officials and hurricane experts urged caution, saying that storms can worsen or lessen with little notice.
“The problem is Hanna has been unpredictable,” Maryland hurricane planner Robert Ward said. “It’s real tough to follow a storm when it won’t make up its mind what it wants to do.”
