Some Southeastern states declared emergencies and officials urged residents to head inland Thursday as Tropical Storm Hanna headed toward the Atlantic coast, where it could bring high winds and rain from South Carolina all the way to Maine.

Meanwhile, disaster planners cast a wary eye to a suddenly ferocious-looking Hurricane Ike strengthening in the Atlantic. And with power outages and other problems from Hurricane Gustav still lingering in Louisiana, Arkansas and Mississippi, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and other relief groups could soon find themselves juggling fallout from three storms.

Rain and wind from Hanna could start as early as Friday night in the South, where some residents shuttered houses and stocked up on food and sandbags, coastal parks closed and schools canceled events and changed sports schedules.

Officials did not order people from their homes in advance of the storm, which was expected to make landfall early Saturday.

The governors of Virginia and North Carolina declared states of emergency, freeing up state resources for storm response. South Carolina opened several emergency shelters and restricted port hours and Gov. Mark Sanford urged people to leave flood-prone areas and mobile homes in two northern counties by Friday afternoon. In North Carolina, some schools prepared to open shelters and officials planned to close ports Friday.

Still, some coastal residents scoffed at what appeared to be a storm that could hit as a low-level hurricane after killing at least 61 people in Haiti.

Instead, they turned to the next worry brewing in the Atlantic: Ike, which strengthened quickly from a tropical storm to a Category 4 hurricane Wednesday. Forecasters said it was too early to say if and where Ike might threaten land.

“Ike is a very scary storm,” said Mike Hughes, spokesman for a North Carolina power company that closely tracks hurricanes as they head through the Atlantic.

For information on preparing your farm for disaster, search “Disaster Preparation” on TheHorse.com. You can also read Prepare Plans and Farms for Hurricane Season, previously posted on TheHorse.com.