Gov. Martin O’Malley declared a state of “pre-disaster emergency” Thursday as the region braces for Tropical Storm Hanna, which could dump up to six inches of rain in the Baltimore area.
Forecasters said the rapidly moving Hanna will carry sustained winds in the 20 mph range with gusts up to 40 mph. Several storm-tracking models show Hanna brushing the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay and heading toward Ocean City, they said.
“But if this track wavers in any degree, there could be an impact in our area,” said Richard Muth, director of the Maryland Emergency Management Agency. “We’re not out of the woods by any stretch of the imagination. We don’t want to let our guard down.”
O’Malley’s declaration, which follows a similar one in Virginia, affects Cecil, Kent, Queen Anne’s, Caroline, Talbot, Dorchester, Wicomico, Somerset and Worcester counties. It authorizes the predeployment of National Guard troops throughout the state.
It also activates an interstate assistance agreement and federal aid reimbursement.
The governor said Hanna likely will force the Bay Bridge to close for some time on Saturday. Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. officials said they have more than 1,500 employees and contractors prepared to restore power outages that could extend into early next week.
“The anxiety is you never really know where these hurricanes are going,” said O’Malley after a briefing at MEMA headquarters in Reisterstown. “Mother Nature can be unpredictable.”
Forecasters predict Hanna will become a hurricane before reaching the southeast coast Friday, but will be remembered as a milder nor’easter. They continue to keep a close eye on two other Atlantic storms, Ike — which was upgraded to a dangerous Category 4 storm with winds at 145 mph — and Josephine.
Chris Strong, warning coordination meteorologist for the National Weather Service’s forecast center in Sterling, Va., said their potential remains uncertain.
“Both Ike and Josephine are too far out in the ocean to know if they are going to make landfall around here,” Strong said. “If that got up here, it wouldn’t be until the second half of next week.”
[email protected]
