As the United States and Caribbean recovered from the effects of Hurricane Gustav, a tropical storm wreaked havoc in the Bahamas and Haiti Tuesday, ahead of its expected U.S. landfall later this week. Tropical Storm Hanna brought heavy rain to the Bahamas and severe to Haiti, as forecasters predicted it would regain strength and hit the southeastern United States later this week as a full hurricane. Meanwhile, two new tropical storms – Josephine and Ike – were moving westward from Africa across the Atlantic Ocean. Tropical Storm Ike, which formed Monday, was predicted to become a hurricane that could threaten both the Caribbean and United States, though its path cannot be predicted as yet. Tropical Storm Josephine was expected to be near hurricane strength by Wednesday or Thursday, around the time that Hanna is predicted to turn northwest and come ashore on the U.S. East Coast between northern Florida and the Carolinas. Hanna could approach the heavily populated Miami-Fort Lauderdale area of south Florida, but the official forecast kept the hurricane well away from there. The storms are part of the unusually busy hurricane season that was forecast by the U.S. government, which predicted 14 to 18 tropical storms would form during the six-month Atlantic hurricane season that began on June 1, compared to a historical average of 10. Tropical Storm Josephine was already the 10th, forming before the statistical peak of the season on September 10. A forecasting team at Colorado State University on Tuesday projected there would be four hurricanes in September, and said storm activity would be nearly twice the average for the month.
