The National Hurricane Center placed the Washington area under a tropical storm watch Thursday afternoon, calling for the center of Tropical Storm Hanna to come close to the region.
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.”
