Orangeburg County emergency officials were holding a tentative and collective sigh of relief Wednesday as the track of strengthening Tropical Storm Hanna appeared to be heading further east than original projections.

The Wednesday evening track had the storm making landfall in North Carolina near Wilmington as a hurricane sometime Saturday morning.

The latest track would spare the Orangeburg area from much of the storm’s wrath, with the expected impact now relegated to possibly some rain feeder bands and wind gusts of about 20-25 mph.

Any effects from the storm would most likely be felt early Saturday morning.

“It is encouraging to see the track moving to the east, but as long as our county is still in the error cone we will continue to keep an eye on it,” Orangeburg County Emergency Services Director John Smith said. “We are feeling better with it, but we have to be ready to go because this could turn.”

John Smith's video comments about the county's storm preparations.

Smith said there are still questions about what the storm will do when it gets off the Georgia coast, but most models do have the storm going to North Carolina.

There were no weather statements, advisories or warnings issued for Orangeburg. Rain and thunderstorm chances for Orangeburg Friday was 40 percent. Rain chances for Friday night and Saturday was 60 percent.

Hanna was forecast to strengthen throughout the day and on Thursday, although forecasters were having a difficult time estimating how strong the system would get.

The storm began its turn to the north during the day.

At 5 p.m., Tropical Storm Hanna was located over the southern Bahamas and had been soaking Hispaniola and the Turks and Caicos.

The storm had maximum sustained winds of 60 mph. It was moving north at 12 mph.

With the storm’s landfall now targeting North Carolina, the likelihood of any coastal evacuations in South Carolina was lessened.

But Smith said the county is ready to handle evacuees if need be.

Although the forecast improved Wednesday, officials did not entirely let down their guard.

Cindy Smith, executive director of the Greater Edisto Chapter of the American Red Cross, said it is not a time to rest easy until the storm moves completely out of the area.

“We still have to plan for the worst and hope for the best,” she said. “Hanna has shown to be a very fickle hurricane moving back and forth. She could possibly move back to the west, causing us problems.”

Throughout the day Wednesday and into Thursday the Red Cross will be training volunteers and working with partner agencies to ensure all is in place to respond.

The local chapter of the United Methodist Church Volunteers in Mission Early Response Teams were preparing to answer the call if needed upon the landfall of Hanna.

The UMVIM, which consists of about 450 volunteers statewide, spent the day Wednesday meeting with Orangeburg County emergency officials to coordinate disaster response.

Billy Robinson of North, the UMVIM state disaster coordinator, said the team is on standby.

“We have Hanna staring us down,” Robinson said. “If Hanna is bad, which we don’t think so right now, we will be ready.”

The UMVIM was formed about four years ago and has responded to a number of natural disasters including Hurricane Katrina.

The organization, which consists of disaster trained volunteers, is responsible for handling first response and would more than likely be called to assist the day after Hanna makes landfall.

The teams, which each consist of between 12 to 14 volunteers, are responsible for ensuring disaster areas are safe, sanitary and secure. The assistance is usually provided for a week.

The teams provide tarpaulins for placement on damaged structures, chain saw work and emotional assistance for those impacted by the storm.

“We make sure their basic needs are met,” Robinson said.

In the interim, a mass e-mail was sent to all UMVIM volunteers this week encouraging everyone to ensure saws, generators, water as well as tractors, front-end loaders and recreational vehicles are in working order and ready to go.

The uncertainty of the storm’s path continued to be a cause of concern for some.

At the Orangeburg Lowes on North Road, store manager Carlton Brunson said there had been a run on light lumber and generators.

“We are selling a lot of generators,” he said.

The store was going to receive a new shipment of generators Wednesday afternoon to replenish its shelves, he said.

Other items selling well included flashlights and batteries.

Orangeburg hotels were filled or near capacity through the weekend.

Sheryl Jennings of the Best Western Orangeburg Inn said individuals will be hard pressed to find room in the inn this weekend.

“We are having a good many booked to arrive tomorrow and some Friday,” Jennings said. “It is booked pretty much for the weekend.”

Barry Hood, vice president of operations for Courtesy Management which operates several hotels in the Orangeburg area, said all of them are nearly booked beginning Friday night through Saturday night.

The combination of the South Carolina State University football game and the storm has made for an unusually busy weekend.

“We had a big booking day yesterday with evacuees calling in,” Hood said. “The phone continues to ring.”

He estimated about half of the hotel patrons were evacuees.

Hood said the early booking is surprising, especially in light of the uncertainty of the storm’s path.

“It can go back the opposite way,” he said. “We could have a lot of cancellations heading into the weekend if the storm looks like it might hit North Carolina.”

In addition to Hanna, the UMVIM has already been contacted by the Louisiana UMVIM requesting assistance in the aftermath of Hurricane Gustav.

Robinson said two teams will probably head to the Gulf Coast region the first or middle of next week to help with disaster aid. Gustav made landfall there on Labor Day. The group will likely be heading toward the Baton Rouge and Houma areas of Louisiana, reportedly among the hardest hit. The UMVIM teams could also get a call from Mississippi, Robinson said.

“It depends on what Hanna does,” he said, noting that correspondence with emergency officials in Louisiana revealed the situation 100 miles inland was like a “war zone.”

T&D Staff Writer Gene Zaleski can be reached by e-mail at gzaleski @timesanddemocrat.com or by phone at 803-533-5551. Discuss this and other stories online at The TandD.com

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