While forecasters said Saturday that Hurricane Gustav is compounding its danger to the Gulf Coast, the most threatening storm to the Georgia Coast appears to be turning away, lessening the threat here.
The National Hurricane Center on Saturday said Gustav strengthened to a Category 4 storm and had maximum sustained winds of near 145 mph.
The center called Gustav an “extremely dangerous” storm. The increase in the storm’s intensity comes as people line up for buses to take them out of New Orleans. Traffic is also heavier on main highways out of the city as residents head north.
In the meantime, Tropical Storm Hanna, which had been on a track that would have brought it to the Southeast Coast in the middle of the week, has turned to the west at least delaying any threat to us.
Saturday afternoon, the storm was about 300 miles east of the Grand Turk Island, moving west at 8 miles per hour. Tropical storm watches were issued for parts of the Bahamas and Turks and Caicos Islands.
The storm is expected to slow, however, giving it the chance to strengthen and the chance that weather patterns could force another change in direction.