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.”

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Fox News Correspondent and Photographer John Bullard reporting live from a relatively calm Myrtle Beach

I’ve covered three storms in three weeks and so far it looks like Hanna is packing the least punch of them all. Make no mistake, Hanna will leave her mark on Coastal Carolina, but it’s pretty much business as usual for residents and tourists in Myrtle Beach.

We are doing live shots for Fox News Channel on the beach right next to our hotel. Unlike our encounter with Gustav earlier this week, folks are not heading for higher ground. Authorities have ordered only voluntary evacuations and many staying in our hotel are making the best of a gloomy day and the stormy night ahead.

I ran into a group of youth pastors from the Bethesda Baptist Church in Durham, North Carolina. They were playing on the beach hoping for a good weekend in the surf and sand here in Myrtle Beach. They considered canceling their trip but heard that Hanna probably wouldn’t reach hurricane status and likely would hit way north of here near Wilmington, NC. But with the storm now looming off shore– promising upwards of 70 mph winds and a possible 10 inches of rain on The Grand Strand of Myrtle Beach, this group will hunker down in their rooms tonight.

Members of the Bethesda Baptist Church in Durham, NC: Jacob Green, Nick Long, Julie Marsh, Skip Marsh, Angie Long and Dennis Long

Not exactly ideal conditions for a weekend getaway to the beach, but you’ll have a hard time spoiling it for this faithful group from Bethesda Baptist Church. They’re making fudge, cooking spaghetti and watching TV to pass the time while the storm batters the beach. For them it’s not the weather that would make this a perfect get away weekend. Despite the howling winds and driving rain they will endure, they say they have their faith and each other on what will turn out to be a perfect stormy Friday night in Myrtle Beach.

We are expecting Hanna to make a quick entrance and an even quicker exit. She will have come and gone before we know it. Like everyone else on the Southeast Coasts, we are monitoring Hanna, but really focusing on Ike. He’s much stronger, more dangerous and a major threat to millions of people in Florida and along the Gulf Coast. Ike will likely be storm number four for me…let’s hope he is the last.

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FRIDAY AFTERNOON:

We’re reporting live from Myrtle Beach (although there’s not much beach to report from). The driving surf has covered much of the sand with warm, shallow water as Tropical Storm Hanna approaches. Click on the video to watch.

FRIDAY MORNING:

We woke up to gray skies and moderately strong surf — a far cry from the calm, sunny weather that greeted our arrival in Myrtle Beach, SC yesterday.

We begin our live reports at 10:30 AM Eastern Time. As we set up our equipment on the beach, employees at nearby hotels are bringing in pool furniture in anticipation of heavy winds tonight.

While people here are taking basic precautions, their major concern does not seem to be Tropical Storm Hanna. All the talk is about Hurricane Ike — a much stronger storm in the Atlantic that may affect the U.S. next week.

THURSDAY AFTERNOON:

After returning from Gustav, we spent a day in Atlanta — just time enough to wash our clothes and dry out our equipment for the next storm.

Now, I’m blogging from Hartsfield-Jackson Airport as FOX field producer Brooks Blanton, freelance producer Kip Grosenick and I are waiting to board a flight to Myrtle Beach, SC to cover Hanna.

My home video camera, which absorbed too much moisture while shooting my last post (despite my best efforts to seal it in a plastic sandwich bag), has dried out and started working again. So, I plan to post new videos shortly after our arrival on the Carolina coast.

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There isn’t much difference between covering a tropical storm and covering a hurricane before it arrives…

We still have to pack all our bad weather gear, stock up on water, dry food and supplies and find a suitable place for the satellite truck to park so we can stay live thru the storm.

Wednesday morning we flew to Savannah Georgia from New York, then had to drive nearly four hours north to Myrtle Beach South Carolina because Hanna shifted her path. We scouted a couple possible locations along the way, including the Litchfield Inn on Pawleys Island (great spot but too far south)before settling at the newly built Sandy Beach Resort just south of the main drag in Myrtle.

When we found out the city wouldn’t let us park our sat truck on the sidewalk in front of the hotel (the only spot protected from the expected winds) we found another spot just up the road at the Windsurfer Motel.

Today we shot interviews and b-roll on the beach, on a pier and in town for a story we put together for our affiliates across the country. We’ll be live until 2 am ET and do it all again tomorrow.

So far the weather has been picture perfect, but forecasters say we’ll get at least tropical storm force winds tomorrow afternoon and evening and heavy rains thru the night.

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