Web-posted Sept. 4, 1996 at 10:30 a.m.

 Area hotels taking reservations as Fran comes closer
 Bob Smith's Hurricane Tracker

The Associated Press

MIAMI (AP) - Hurricane Fran skirted the Bahamas today as U.S. forecasters scurried to predict where it would strike later this week. The governor of South Carolina advised coastal residents to move inland, and NASA moved the space shuttle off the launch pad at Cape Canaveral.

The storm had 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 expected sometime late Thursday. The northwest Bahamas were under a hurricane warning, but a forecaster there said the worst weather today would be offshore.

In Columbia, S.C., Gov. David Beasley today asked South Carolinians to voluntarily leave barrier islands and beachfront areas of the state, calling Fran "an exceedingly large and dangerous storm" that potentially could hit the state like Hurricane Hugo did seven years ago.

Hugo roared into the state just north of Charleston, blowing to Columbia before turning north toward Charlotte, N.C.

Fran also brought more recent memories of Hurricane Bertha, which came ashore in North Carolina in July with sustained winds of 75 mph, causing millions of dollars in damage.

This morning at Cape Canaveral, space shuttle Atlantis began the slow trek from the 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 because of the rollback, NASA spokesman Bruce Buckingham said today. A new launch date was not immediately set.

In the Bahamas, residents had boarded up homes and headed to shelters Tuesday night, but fears eased somewhat today.

"We're not expected to get the brunt of Hurricane Fran," Trevor Basden, chief meteorological officer with the Bahamas Department of Meteorology, said in a telephone interview from Nassau.

Forecasters expected Fran's eye to be within 100 miles of Marsh Harbor in Abaco about midafternoon today. On that island this morning, there were isolated showers, and higher than normal tides were forecast.

With maximum sustained winds near 115 mph, Fran was a dangerous Category 3 hurricane on a scale that runs from 1 to 5. Forecasters at the National Hurricane Center in suburban Miami expected it to strengthen into a Category 4 as it travels over warm waters.

At 8 a.m. EDT, Fran was centered about 515 miles southeast of Charleston, S.C. It was moving northwest near 12 mph, having turned northwest a bit, as predicted.

In Jacksonville, 14 ships from Mayport Naval Station headed for safety out at sea. The U.S. Coast Guard urged mariners to monitor the hurricane; drawbridges will close once winds reach tropical storm strength.

Hotels in Augusta, Ga., 150 miles up the Savannah River from the coast, were busy Tuesday taking reservations for the next few days.

"I think we'll be pretty busy if it does come through," said Jane Hamilton, manager of a La Quinta Inn on Interstate 20, which had booked 32 rooms for families fleeing the Hilton Head Island, S.C., area. "We'll be solid, I think."

South Carolina's emergency operations center was fully activated this morning.

"Our concern is that the public may become less responsive to evacuation orders," said Joe Farmer, a spokesman for the state's Emergency Preparedness Division. "We recognize that as the public is exposed to more and more of these, the need for us to reinforce this message is greater."

Carol Dillon, owner of the Outer Banks Motel in Buxton, N.C., on Hatteras Island, said she trusts her barometer more than the forecasters.

"They don't know any more than you do or I do because these things are so erratic," she said. "I hope it's not coming here. We've had more than our share in the last five years."