Hurricane Fran skirted the Bahamas and strengthened Wednesday on a course toward the U.S. mainland, where South Carolina's governor declared a state of emergency and the space shuttle was hauled away from its exposed launch pad.
The storm had sustained winds of 115 mph, and a hurricane watch was posted from north of Sebastian Inlet in central Florida to Little River Inlet, S.C., with landfall possible sometime late Thursday.The northwest Bahamas were under a hurricane warning, but the worst weather there Wednesday was expected to be offshore.
South Carolina Gov. David Beasley on Wednesday declared a state of emergency and activated some National Guard units to help with evacuations, if necessary.
Beasley stopped short of ordering evacuations, urging people to voluntarily leave the state's barrier islands and beachfront areas. He called Fran "an exceedingly large and dangerous storm" that could hit the state like Hurricane Hugo did seven years ago.
Hugo roared into the state just north of Charleston in 1989, blowing inland to Columbia before looping northward toward Charlotte, N.C. This year, Bertha came ashore in North Carolina in July with 75 mph sustained winds, causing millions of dollars in damage.
In Georgia, local governments along the coast were expected to recommend evacuations later Wednesday, the state Emergency Management Agency said Wednesday morning. In Brunswick, cars were backed up five deep at service stations on Tuesday as motorists filled their tanks in anticipation of evacuations.
Wednesday morning at Cape Canaveral, space shuttle Atlantis began the slow trek from its launch pad back to the safety of its giant hangar. Kennedy Space Center is in the hurricane watch area, and even though it appeared Fran would head farther north, shuttle managers decided not to take any chances.
Atlantis was supposed to blast off Sept. 14 to retrieve Shannon Lucid from the Russian space station Mir, her home since March. The launch will be delayed probably a few days, a NASA spokesman said Wednesday.