I’m home in Atlanta, washing the clothes I wore in Tropical Storm Hanna, only to repack them for Hurricane Ike.

If this storm maintains its current track, there’s a good chance we’ll be heading back to Louisiana, which is still drying out from Hurricane Gustav.

Gustav was not “the mother of all storms” New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin had predicted. However, the system did pack a powerful punch to some of the smaller towns and parishes outside the national spotlight, as the media focused attention on the levees protecting major population centers.

Linda, a FOX News viewer and reader of this blog, writes: “Please remind the country that these people may live in small towns, but have big needs.”

While reporting on Gustav for local FOX stations around the country, one of the most common questions I got from anchors is whether Louisiana residents would become more complacent after seeing how well New Orleans fared in this storm.

While there may be some resentment for the mandatory evacuations, residents will, hopefully, remember the lessons of Hurricane Katrina, which killed at least 1,600 people three years ago.

Gustav bore many similarities to Katrina while out at sea, but came ashore as a considerably weaker storm. The Crescent City’s new flood control system has yet to be tested against the “next Katrina.”

People on the beach taking advantage of the day!

The trees were blowing and it was raining hard this morning at 5 am when we reported for our first live shots.  What a difference a few hours makes!  Hanna wasn’t expected to be a big storm or hang around very long and she lived up to that forecast.  By Noon, there was barely a cloud in the sky and the beach is filled with people taking advantage of the sun, blue skies and slight breeze.

While walking the beach and looking for someone to take my picture in the ocean, I bumped into Paula and Jay Morris from Raleigh, NC.  I asked them to snap a shot of me, but quickly realized they had an interesting story to tell, so I turned the camera on them.  Jay and Paula were just married in Minnesota last week — that’s where Paula grew up.  Initially, like many newlyweds, they planned to go to Cancun for a honeymoon.  But their plans were canceled because of Hurricane Gustav.  Paula and Jay decided instead to stay close to home and as far away from Gustav as they could.  So they made their way to Myrtle Beach, not realizing that a smaller storm named Hanna was attempting to wreck their Plan B Honeymoon.

Good news for the Jay, Paula and everyone else on the Carolina Coast that Hanna was a very minor storm.  Twelve hours after landfall and you wouldn’t even know she was ever here.  The beaches are busy, the pool is full and life is back to normal here on the Grand Strand of South Carolina.  What a perfect day to cover the aftermath of a Tropical Storm.

Skies are often spectacularly colorful the night before a big storm

In Myrtle Beach, Hanna didn’t pack much of a punch. Some jabs, perhaps, easily deflected.

We got plenty of rain, coming down in sheets at times, or sideways with the gusts, but never really stinging my face like I’ve felt in more significant storms past.

The wind swirled and stopped and swirled some more. We might’ve had peak in the 50’s, but there was never a time where I had trouble standing.

The most impressive part of the Tropical Storm here on the Grand Strand was the angry surf, whitecaps curling and pounding the beach in rows, washing up and over my boots as I stood at the edge of the dunes for live shots.

Ike, on the other hand, looks like Hanna’s criminal cousin, ready to commit felonies across the Florida Keys and beyond. He could be very dangerous and folks would be smart to avoid crossing his path.

So of course we’re gonna head straight down there and stand in his way.

Photographer Tommy Chiu newsgathers on Myrtle Beach before Hanna

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Hanna made landfall as a tropical storm near the SC/NC state line, about 20 miles north of our live location in Myrtle Beach.

We managed to keep power through the night. And, other than reports of relatively minor flooding, there appears to be very little damage.

Even as Hanna’s winds continue to gust outside, residents and emergency management officials are looking toward Hanna’s “siblings” — Tropical Depression Josephine and, in particular, Hurricane Ike, which could affect the U.S. next week.

The hotel threw lounge chairs in the pool so they wouldn

11:16pm
The winds are the strongest yet, but not yet the strongest expected. That lounge chair in the pool trick we mentioned earlier… Not working! They’re being blown out of the water. We’ve been doing hits every 5 to 10 minutes all night long. We’re running up to a hotel room whenever we can to drop our wet things in a dryer. Not sure why we’re bothering!

7:47pm

Lull over. We’re live on beach. The sand is whipping up and stinging my legs. I bought waterproof pants, but they have somehow disappeared. So I’m wearing shorts.

7:23pm
There’s a lull in the storm now. I can see the horizon again. There’s even a family walking the beach.

6:16
This is my first storm chasing experience. It’s interesting how the bands come and go with different wind speeds. I’m taking shelter inside a hotel for a few minutes. The wind was howling but the suddenly just stopped. A woman here yelped “ooh!”. It’s funny how sudden silence can shock people almost as much as loud noises.

5:56pm
The sky is now a grayish white, you can no longer see the horizon line. The rain is coming down hard. I’m already drenched. My fingers are pruned. And we haven’t seen the worst of Hanna yet.

5:36pm
The wind’s picking up and the surf’s pounding the sand in Myrtle Beach, SC as Tropical Storm Hanna is getting ready to come ashore. Rick’s doing his affiliate liveshots next to a message someone scratched in the sand: “Welcome to MB Hanna”. That pretty much sums up the mood here. Locals and even some tourists are riding out the storm.