Surfers hit the waves as Tropical Storm Cristobal treks northeast
CHARLESTON, South Carolina: Tropical Storm Cristobal, the first tropical storm to menace the southeastern U.S. seaboard this hurricane season, sent outer bands of intermittent rain lashing the eastern North and South Carolina late Saturday as forecasters predicted it could dump several inches in some areas of drought-stricken North Carolina.
At 8 p.m. EDT (0000 GMT), the center of the storm was about 130 miles (209 kilometers) east of Charleston, South Carolina, and about 185 miles (297 kilometers) southwest of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. The National Hurricane Center said Cristobal was moving northeast at about 6 mph (10 kph) with maximum sustained winds of about 45 mph (72 kph) and some higher gusts.
"Basically the track is running parallel to the coast," said lead center forecaster Martin Nelson, speaking with The Associated Press by telephone from Miami. "Slow strengthening is forecast for the next day or two."
Bradley Rose, a surf instructor at SandBarz in Carolina Beach, North Carolina, said surfers took the plunge.
"It looks pretty fun out there," Rose said.
Although the center of the storm was forecast to remain off the coast through the weekend, tropical storm warnings were in effect from the South Santee River in South Carolina to the North Carolina-Virginia state line, including Pamlico Sound.
Flood advisories were posted for coastal counties, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service there.
Cristobal's winds were not expected to be a problem, Keebler said.
Elsewhere Saturday, Hurricane Fausto strengthened far off Mexico's Pacific coast, while Hurricane Bertha raced rapidly to the northeast over the North Atlantic, hundreds of miles off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada. Neither of those storms currently threaten land. Bertha had blustered across Bermuda earlier this week, knocking out electricity to thousands there.
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