PROVIDENCIALES, Turks and Caicos - Hurricane Hanna slumped to tropical storm strength on Tuesday even as it caused killer floods, and forecasters said it still poses a hurricane threat to the U.S. East Coast.
The storm spawned flooding in Haiti that killed at least 10 people, raising the storm's regional death toll to 11.
The 10 bodies were found Tuesday in Gonaives along Haiti's western coast, said Marie Alta Jean-Baptiste, the country's civil protection director.
"The situation is as bad as it can be," said Vadre Louis, a U.N. investigator based in Gonaives. "The wind is ripping up trees. Houses are flooded with water. Cars can't drive on the street. You can't rescue anyone wherever they may be."
Hanna's maximum sustained winds slipped to 70 mph and the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said it could weaken further. But it still has the potential to become a hurricane again by Thursday.
Targeting the U.S.
The hurricane center said its forecast track would carry Hanna toward "the east coast of Florida, Georgia or South Carolina in two to three days."
But it said the track was uncertain and that the entire Southeastern U.S. coast should closely monitor the storm.
U.S. & World
Hanna's movement has been agonizingly slow for people in the tourist magnets of the Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos, directly under its winds.
Newly formed Tropical Storm Ike was cruising westward across the central Atlantic and was projected to near the storm-weary Bahamas by Sunday. It had winds of 60 mph (95 kph) and could become a hurricane on Wednesday.
