By Frank D. Roylance , frank.roylance@baltsun.com|August 30, 2008
All eyes are on Hurricane Gustav today as the Caribbean storm threatens to become a dangerous Category 3 and a serious threat to Louisiana and the northern Gulf Coast. But Gustav is not all that hurricane forecasters have to contend with this weekend.
Out in the Atlantic Ocean southeast of Miami, a storm named Hanna also was expected to reach hurricane strength this weekend and threaten the Bahamas by midweek.
And a tropical wave was strengthening off the coast of Africa - the breeding ground for the powerful Cape Verdean hurricanes that sometimes cross the ocean to batter the U.S. East Coast. If it is next to reach tropical storm strength, it will be named Ike.
"It's important that people understand we're in the peak of an active hurricane season. That means an increased threat to the U.S., as we're seeing with Gustav and the H storm," said Gerry Bell, the lead seasonal hurricane forecaster at the national Climate Prediction Center in Camp Springs.
"People need to have safety plans in place."
A team of emergency responders was scheduled to leave Maryland for Louisiana at 4 a.m. today, answering a call for assistance from state officials there, according Baltimore police spokesman Sterling Clifford.
After two relatively quiet years, the 2008 Atlantic hurricane season is even busier than forecasters had originally predicted. Climatologists say it's the resumption of a decades-long cycle of heightened Atlantic hurricane activity that began in 1995.
Gustav became a minimal hurricane yesterday afternoon, and it could reach Category 3 strength - with top sustained winds of 111 mph or more - by the time it crosses western Cuba today and enters the Gulf of Mexico.
At 11 p.m. yesterday, Gustav was just southwest of the Cayman Islands and strengthening as it moved northwest at about 11 mph, with top sustained winds of nearly 80 mph, the National Hurricane Center said.
On its current track, the storm would pass over western Cuba today and enter the southern Gulf of Mexico tonight or tomorrow, the center said.
The storm left 71 dead in Hispaniola and Jamaica this week. Forecasters warned of storm surge flooding of 8 to 13 feet in Cuba, and 6 to 12 inches of rain. Some places could receive 25 inches.
In the United States, residents of the northern Gulf Coast were preparing their escape plans, fearful that Gustav would demolish all they had done to recover from the catastrophic storm season of 2005.
