Tropical Storm Hanna is likely to hit North Carolina Saturday, and may disrupt some activities surrounding the Wolfpack’s first home game against William & Mary.

Below is information regarding the storms that may bring wind and rain to the area and what they could mean for the weekend’s activities.

William & Mary game

Although there has been talk of Saturday’s football game getting cancelled due to Hurricane Hanna’s inclement weather, the Athletics Department said there wouldn’t be any changes to the game’s status as of Thursday night.

“Every path [the National Weather Service has] shown us right now would keep us with the game going,” Dick Christy, associate director of athletics, said as of 2 p.m. Thursday.

Christy said if the weather seems to be bad enough to postpone the game but would be passing after a few hours, then pushing the game to later that day could be a possibility.

“[But] you don’t want to push the teams too far into the evening,” he said.

And Athletics doesn’t want to try to reschedule the game, Christy said, because it doesn’t seem likely that the William and Mary team will have another free weekend to play.

“My gut feeling is there wouldn’t be another weekend, so we’d have to look at a time on Sunday to get it in,” he said.

However, Christy remained optimistic.

“The last two days, all the information coming from the National Weather Service would have turned toward the fact that we would not change the game time,” he said. “We would go with where we’re at.”

Deputy News Editor Derek Medlin contributed to this report.

Friday night tailgates

Student Government, in collaboration with Hillsborough Street businesses, is planning Friday night tailgates on Hillsborough Street before Saturday football home games.

Alan Lovette, owner of Melvin’s and Five O’Clock Sports Bar, said the tailgating for the William & Mary game will start tonight, and it has been advertised on Facebook and on telephone poles.

“I don’t know how active it’s going to be [though],” Lovette said.

But Lovette said there are three games in a row after this one and that the tailgating tradition will catch on.

“[Student Body President] Jay [Dawkins] has been doing a good job trying to help Hillsborough Street,” Lovette said. “One of the promises in his campaign was to try to create more activity on Hillsborough Street.”

Each establishment, Lovette said, will have different themed music as well as restaurant specials during those Friday nights like Melvin’s $1 hamburger special.

“This ties into the Haunted Hike,” Lovette said.

News Editor Chris Allred contributed to this report.

State of Emergency

Gov. Mike Easley declared a state of emergency and activated the National Guard and water rescue teams Thursday as Hurricane Hanna moved toward the East Coast, and also warned of Hurricane Ike.

Easley’s statement urged state and local agencies to assist in carrying out the North Carolina Emergency Operations Plan, and he also announced the Governor’s Emergency Bilingual Hotline that will start today at 10 a.m.

The hotline will have weather information, shelter locations, feeding sites, highway closings and other important information.

“It now appears Hanna will be a Category 1 hurricane when it hits the North Carolina coast early Saturday morning,” Easley said. “Since the exact path is uncertain, everyone who lives in the coastal counties needs to be ready. If you do not have your emergency supplies kit together and your emergency plan in place, there is no time to wait. Please act now.”

The governor’s statement said though Hanna seems like it will be minimal when it comes to North Carolina, Ike, a category 4 storm is expected to be a category 3 storm when it begins to approach eastern North Carolina.

“North Carolina’s State Emergency Response Team is already tracking Ike and making plans in case that storm also affects the state,” the statement read.

Tropical Storm Hanna and her projection

Forecasters are expecting Hanna, which was classified as a tropical storm Thursday night, to reach land near North Carolina and South Carolina’s border or near Wilmington early Saturday morning.

After that, it should continue up the northeast American coastline, but since it is moving quickly, it will not hover for long.

By 11 p.m. Thursday, Hanna was 540 miles south of Wilmington and was moving northwest at around 14 mph. The highest winds in the center of the storm were approximately 65 mph.

Hanna is not structured like a normal tropical storm, so its center may not be its most important part. The most destructive aspects may be found away from the center, including strong winds, heavy rain and amplified ocean currents.

SOURCE: The weather channel

Hurricane Ike

Although Tropical Storm Hanna is expected to approach North Carolina’s coast soon, there may be more cause for concern about Hurricane Ike, which is a category-4 storm. Although Hurricane Ike will lose strength when it hits land, there is about a 50 percent probability that the Raleigh area will experience tropical storm force winds, or winds that are greater than or equal to 39 mph, from Ike. There is a 10 to 20 percent chance that the area will experience winds greater than 58 mph.

source: national hurricane center