Where will all those fleeing Hurricane Gustav go?

Jason Sandford

Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.

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Where will all those Louisana folks fleeing Hurricane Gustav end up? Certainly the mountains of Western North Carolina could be one location. I’m wondering if we’ll see an influx.

Watching some of the coverage this afternoon, I saw former WLOSer Mike “Big Time” Bettis reporting for the Weather Channel from New Orleans. He did a good job. I’ll be looking for more reports from him.

The Citizen-Times also has long-time sports writer Keith Jarrett blogging about his coverage of the storm. He’s in Lafayette, just west of Baton Rouge, to help another Gannett newspaper, The Advertiser, cover the storm.

Meantime, it also appears that tropical storm Hannah could impact the Carolinas later this coming week. We’ll have to wait and see. Here’s what Ray’s Weather says about Hannah impacting Asheville’s weather:

In the mean time, Tropical Storm Hanna has weakened slightly since this morning and now has maximum sustained winds of 50 mph. Moving to the WNW at 10 mph, Hanna is now less than 150 miles NNE of Grand Turk Island. This path will take Hanna through the Bahamas over the next several days before a position off the east coast of Florida is expected by Friday. At that time, with Hanna being over the warm waters of the gulf stream, strengthening is expected and Hanna is forecast to become a hurricane. Longer range models are hinting at a landfall along the southeast coast late next week. If this verifies, Hanna could impact our weather, depending on her eventual path, and is something we’ll continue to keep an eye on.