MIAMI (AFP) - Tropical Storm Hanna barreled across the southeastern United States on Saturday, battering the coast with waves, rain and wind and prompting thousands of people to seek refuge inland. As Hanna struck, Florida's governor urged residents to prepare for an even more powerful storm, Hurricane Ike, which threatened the neighboring Bahamas and Cuba. Hanna, which has already left hundreds dead in Haiti, triggered emergency operations along more than 1,600 kilometers of the North and South Carolina coastline. The eye of the storm moved quickly across the Carolinas after crashing on the border of the neighboring states in the early morning, the Miami-based National Hurricane Center said. The stormed packed sustained winds near 110 kilometers per hour when it made landfall. It later weakened with winds of 85 kph as it moved inland, making its way to southern Virginia. The hurricane center warned that Hanna could trigger tornadoes in North Carolina, Virginia and Maryland. The storm was expected to produce four to six inches (10 to 15 centimeters) of rain across the northeast from North Carolina to New York state. "These rainfall amounts could produce flash flooding across these regions," the center said. Hanna could also produce huge, dangerous waves with a storm surge of one to three feet above normal tide levels, the hurricane center said. The governors of North Carolina and Virginia declared states of emergency. South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford called for people to evacuate two counties. Severan southern US states have endured a battery of storms in recent weeks, including Tropical Storm Fay late last month and Hurricane Gustav this past week. Officials expressed concern that people along the coast were not taking Hanna seriously. "The response is not what we would want it to be," Sam Hodge, emergency manager for Georgetown, South Carolina, told CBS News. "We feel there should be more people evacuating." Authorities also kept a wary eye on the more formidable Hurricane Ike out in the Atlantic. Haiti's northern coast, which is still recovering from devastating flooding from Hanna, was under a tropical storm warning. The poorest country in the Americas is now reeling from the destruction inflicted by three storms in as many weeks that killed more than 500 people. Ike was on course to pass over or near the Turks and Caicos Islands and the Bahamas on Saturday before possibly slamming into Cuba, another island nation recently battered by this hurricane season's conga line of storms. Florida Governor Charlie Christ warned that Ike could strike southern Florida by Tuesday. "Ike has grown rapidly into a dangerous, powerful storm," Christ told a news conference. "I urge all ... Floridians to use the next few days to prepare. Our ability to prepare now will ensure everyone's safety later," he said. We must be prepared, we must be smart, and we must be vigilant." Densely populated south Florida, including the cities of Miami and Fort Lauderdale, has not been hit by a major hurricane since Hurricane Andrew in 1992 " the costliest natural disaster in US history until it was topped by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Ike weakened a little to a category two hurricane, the second lowest on the five-level Saffir-Simpson scale, with sustained winds of 175 kilometers (110 miles) per hour, the hurricane center said. But it was expected to regain "major" hurricane strength in the next 48 hours, it said. At 1500 GMT, the hurricane was 240 kilometers east of Grand Turk Island and was moving southwest at about 26 kilometers per hour, the center said. Meanwhile a third system, Tropical Storm Josephine dissipated into a tropical storm depression over the Atlantic