Emergency management officials ramped up operations Tuesday, with Tropical Storm Hanna forecast to break out of its stall and dash for the Carolinas later this week as a hurricane.

Forecasters say it is too early to accurately predict Hanna's inland track across the Carolinas, but the Charlotte metro area remains a possible target of the storm as it plows northward Friday.

Hanna weakened from a hurricane to a tropical storm early Tuesday, and forecasters say strong winds blowing over the top of the system could cause further weakening over the next 24 hours, before Hanna is forecast to strengthen again. At 11 a.m., the poorly organized center of the tropical storm was in the southern Bahamas, and it was drifting west-southwest about 6 mph.

The National Hurricane Center predicts a landfall for Hanna around midday Friday, somewhere along the central South Carolina coast. At that time, the storm's top sustained winds are expected to be 90 to 95 mph.

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