Southeast Braces for Wild Bout With Hurricane Fran

South Carolina Gov. David Beasley declared a state of emergency, called out the National Guard and ordered half a million people evacuated as powerful Hurricane Fran roared toward an expected collision with the vulnerable Southeastern United States late today or early Friday.

“This storm is incredibly dangerous and must be taken seriously as the life-threatening force that it is,” Beasley said.

Earlier Wednesday, as Fran skirted north of the Bahamas, its sustained winds grew to 115 mph and National Hurricane Center forecasters in Miami said the hurricane could grow into a Category 4 storm, with winds of at least 131 mph, over the warm Gulf Stream.

The storm warnings caused particular anxiety among residents of Charleston, S.C., which was clobbered by Hurricane Hugo in 1989. That September storm hit the city with 140-mph winds and was blamed for 27 deaths and the destruction of thousands of homes and businesses. Damage totaled more than $7 billion.

The hurricane center on Wednesday listed Charleston as Fran’s most likely target, although coastal areas from North Carolina to northern Florida were alerted.

“This certainly does make me nervous,” said Charleston Chamber of Commerce official Mary Graham, whose car and apartment were damaged during the storm seven years ago. “At this point, Fran looks and feels a lot like Hugo.”

At least 1,000 National Guardsmen were arriving in towns along the coast, and some took positions directing traffic. Boat owners scrambled to tie down their vessels or get them out of the water.

Federal Emergency Managemeny Agency Director James Lee Witt said six tractor-trailers loaded with cots, tents, generators, blankets and other supplies were ready to go to the Southeast. The Agriculture Department has earmarked food, and eight medical teams were on alert.

Unlike Hurricane Edouard, which brushed the Northeast with heavy winds and rains over the Labor Day weekend but whose most-punishing winds were kept out to sea, hurricane forecasters expect Fran to make a direct hit, sending its eyewall and its strongest winds over the coastline.

At 5 p.m. EDT, Fran was about 410 miles southeast of Charleston, the hurricane center said. It was moving northwest at approximately 12 mph.

A hurricane warning extended from north of Brunswick, Ga., to Cape Lookout, N.C., and a hurricane watch from north of Cape Lookout to Currituck Beach Light, N.C. A tropical storm watch was posted from Flagler Beach, Fla., to Brunswick, Ga.

Tides of 3 to 6 feet above normal were predicted to lash the Southeast coastline, and if Fran pushes inland, it would bring a threat of flooding rains well into the Appalachian Mountains.

The storm is massive. Hurricane-force winds of at least 75 mph extended 175 miles from the center, and tropical-storm-force winds of 39 mph or more reached 290 miles to the north.

Some South Carolina schools closed Wednesday, and the Marine Corps prepared for possible evacuation of 5,000 troops from its Parris Island training center near Beaufort, S.C. Friday’s scheduled graduation of 600 recruits was canceled.

Residents of the Georgia coast also were urged to move inland, and officials began evacuating residents of Ocracoke Island, N.C., part of the Outer Banks.

As in South Carolina, Georgians jammed grocery stores to stock up on emergency supplies, and long lines formed at gas stations as residents rushed to fill up the tank. Throughout the region, local officials prepared to open emergency shelters to take in those fleeing the coast.

“Lots of people are boarding up and heading out of town,” Stacy Schurter, sales director of Grey Line Tours in Savannah, Ga., said Wednesday. “It’s sunny, but we have no business.”

Hotels in Augusta, Ga., 150 miles from the South Carolina coast, reported many reservations from people fleeing Beaufort and Hilton Head Island, S.C.

Although Florida was expected to escape the brunt of Fran’s wallop, the Navy ordered ships docked at the Mayport Naval Station in Jacksonville to head out to sea, and at the Kennedy Space Station, the space shuttle Atlantis was rolled into its hangar for protection.

That action again postponed the shuttle’s liftoff to bring astronaut Shannon Lucid home from the Russian space station Mir, where she has lived since March.

The mission to pick up Lucid, 53, and drop off her replacement is already running six weeks behind schedule because of problems with the spaceship’s booster rockets. This latest delay will last at least two days.

Atlantis also had been pushed back to its assembly building in July when Hurricane Bertha threatened the Florida coast.

Behind Fran, forecasters were also tracking another system likely to earn the name Hortense. That tropical depression was well east of the Lesser Antilles and marching to the west.