MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. (AP) -- Tropical Storm Hanna buffeted predawn tourist beaches on the North-South Carolina border Saturday at the start of a run up the Eastern Seaboard forecast to dump heavy weekend rain from Virginia to New England.

Emergency officials were already looking past Hanna to powerful Hurricane Ike, several hundred miles out in the Atlantic. Ike, packing Category 3 hurricane winds of near 115 mph, could approach southern Florida by Monday as Hanna spins away from Canada over the North Atlantic.

The National Hurricane Center in Miami said Hanna's center came on land about 3:20 a.m. near the state line with top sustained winds dropping to about 60 mph from near 70 mph while the storm was over water.

"All I've heard is wind, wind and more wind," said Dylan Oslzewski, 19, working an overnight shift at a convenience store in Shallotte, N.C., about 15 miles north of the state line with South Carolina. Oslzewski said he had only seen four customers compared to 30 or 40 on a normal weekend night.

Hanna started drenching the Carolina coast Friday, with streets in some spots flooding by late afternoon as the leading edges of the storm approached land, making people gathered on beaches shout to be heard.

By early Saturday, the wind howled as gusts neared 50 mph and rain came in blinding bursts in Myrtle Beach. The lights flickered on and off several times along some beachfront blocks and the wind was so strong that it made waves in hotel pools.

Vacationing friends Ken Prive, 17, and Armin Berkley, 18, from Concord, N.C., were swimming in high waves in the ocean after employees at their hotel kicked them out of the pool.

"We're good swimmers and we want to have fun," Berkley said. "Yeah, this is crazy, but you have to live life as hard as you can."

Police in other parts of the 50-mile-beach called the Grand Strand chased people out of the surf.

Emergency officials urged evacuations in only a few spots in the Carolinas and about 400 people went to shelters in both states. Forecasters had said there was only a small chance of Hanna becoming a hurricane, and most people simply planned to stay off the roads until the storm passed.

Hanna was expected to race up the Atlantic Coast, reaching New England by Sunday morning. Tropical storm watches or warnings ran from the Carolinas to Massachusetts, and included all of Chesapeake Bay, the Washington, D.C., area and Long Island. But a hurricane watch along the Carolinas' coasts was dropped.

The storm has been blamed for disastrous flooding and more than 100 deaths in Haiti.

As many as 6 inches of rain were expected in the Carolinas, as well as central Virginia, Maryland and southeastern Pennsylvania. Some spots could see up to 10 inches, and forecasters warned of the potential for flash flooding in the northern mid-Atlantic states and southern New England.

Federal Emergency Management Agency officials expected Hanna to move quickly but said they had supplies in place and emergency crews ready to respond.