Updated 9/2/2008 1:16:42 PM
DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. -- Hurricane Hanna is estimated to hit the South Carolina-Georgia border area Friday, with the eye of the storm passing over Savannah.
RELATED: Coastal Georgia Evacuation Routes
Federal emergency managers in DeKalb County are spending most of their time on Gustav right now. But Hanna is getting more attention by the hour.
It has been 29 years since a tropical system scored a direct hit on the city of Savannah.
Georgia emergency officials are very concerned about a possible direct hit by Hanna on the Georgia coast south of Savannah late in the week with maximum sustained winds of up 100 mph. Of course, that forecast could change.
GEMA is set to open its Emergency Operations Center Tuesday at 7 a.m.
To plan for the worst -- including the possible evacuation of the city of Savannah and other coastal areas, including the barrier islands, officials are considering starting to evacuate special needs residents as early as Wednesday.
"Regardless of the severity or category of the storm, the barrier islands will certainly need to be evacuated," said Ken Davis of GEMA. "So we've got a full range of things to get done in a short period of time."
Georgia's fire and insurance commissioner John Oxendine had a message he wanted to send directly to residents of Georgia's coastal areas.
"If an evacuation is called, get out," Oxendine said. "Leave! Wwe've seen what's happened in other areas."
National Hurricane Center forecasters said that computer models show Hurricane Hanna moving northward, striking the coast near the Savannah River in the middle of the day on Friday as a Category 2 hurricane with sustained winds of 100 mph. Hanna is now in the Bahamas, with winds of around 80 mph and increasing.
And on the heels of Hanna is Ike, which became a tropical storm in the mid-Atlantic on Monday. Officials said that some computer models show Ike becoming a hurricane by mid-week, and possibly following Hanna's path to the coastal areas by sometime next week.
