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Tropical Storm Hanna drenched much of Virginia yesterday and contributed to three traffic deaths in Chesterfield County.

Next on the worry list: Hurricane Ike. A Category 4 storm with 135 mph winds, Ike was approaching the Bahamas last night.

Gov. Timothy M. Kaine said emergency officials already were planning for Ike, which could come ashore in the Gulf of Mexico and bring heavy rain to western Virginia. But the governor and the National Weather Service said it was too early to predict Ike's impact with any certainty.

Hanna's winds of up to 55 mph caused few problems, other than downed tree limbs and power outages, which at one point topped 50,000 in the eastern half of the state. But power was being quickly restored through the night.

The storm dumped 4 to 6 inches of rain along a stretch of the state between Interstate 95 and the Blue Ridge Mountains, creating a flash-flood hazard, Kaine said. Part of Prince William County received 8.3 inches.

In the Richmond area, the storm dumped 2½ to 4 inches of rain, while winds gusted to 36 mph.

Chesterfield police believe weather was a major factor in two fatal car crashes.

John D. Bailey, 51, of Amelia County died at 6:19 a.m. on Hull Street Road when his pickup truck struck several trees.

Shortly before noon, two Chesterfield residents died when the car they were in struck a tree on Matoaca Road. Daniel R. Cain, 30, of the 12200 block of Manders Knoll Terrace, and Nicole Barone, 28, of the 2800 block of Autumn Woods Circle, died at the scene, authorities said.

Kaine said state emergency officials had no immediate damage estimates from Hanna, but he said the toll in property appeared minor.

"We were prepared for this one to be worse than it was," the governor said.

Added Bryan Jackson, a weather service meteorologist, "The winds were pretty strong, but not strong enough to knock things over."

Widespread drought had lowered stream levels, and that helped limit flash flooding, said Bob Spieldenner, a spokesman for the state Department of Emergency Management.

The storm made landfall at 3:20 a.m. at the North Carolina-South Carolina line. It dropped heavy rains in the Carolinas, including 5 inches in Fayetteville, N.C., but the main result was isolated flooding and blackouts.

Hanna swept past the Outer Banks of North Carolina in early morning, causing little damage.

"It was a quiet little storm," said Sandy Sanderson, emergency services coordinator for Dare County, N.C., which includes most of the Outer Banks. "We got some rain we needed."

The storm's center crossed into Virginia about 10:30 a.m. between Emporia and Franklin, the weather service said.

That center moved up across Sussex County and the Middle Peninsula before crossing the Chesapeake Bay and leaving Virginia in midafternoon. Rains continued for a couple of more hours in Northern Virginia, however.

Hanna was expected to be moving off the New England coast by this morning.

Hanna didn't impress Richmond mechanic Darrell Brooks, 40. "It's nothing special. I've seen worse."

But the story was different for Lindell Sykes, 55, of South Richmond. He doesn't own a car and had to walk about 2 miles in the blasting rain to a doctor's appointment.

"To me it felt kind of bad," Sykes said. "It wasn't fun, but I made it."

In Northern Virginia's Loudoun County, authorities rescued two people from a car caught in high water. Fairfax County officials evacuated dozens of homes in the Burke and Huntington areas because of flood concerns.

"The places that traditionally flood have indeed flooded," said Merni Fitzgerald, a spokesperson for Fairfax County.

In Prince William, authorities shut down several roads because of rising water, including stretches of U.S. 1 and I-95 south.

In Hampton Roads the storm exacted a toll of mostly downed tree limbs, brief power outages and canceled events. Winds along the coast gusted to 55 mph at times but caused no reported injuries or serious damage.

By 1 p.m., people were jogging and riding bicycles in light rain on the Virginia Beach boardwalk. The surf was big but not threatening.

Becky Rickman of Virginia Beach, walking her dog, said her family had bought a small supply of bottled water and some candles in advance of Hanna, but the storm "turned out really not affecting us at all. It hasn't been much."

Steve Phillips of Damascus, Md., traveled to Virginia Beach to watch a Shriners parade -- one of dozens of events canceled or postponed by the storm. "I'm still waiting for it to get here," he joked as the storm died down.

Richmonders will continue to feel Tropical Storm Hanna's dampness today -- it should be humid with highs in the 80s under sunny skies.
Contact Rex Springston at (804) 649-6453 or rspringston@timesdispatch.com

Contact Bill Geroux at (757) 498-2720 or bgeroux@timesdispatch.com.

Staff writers Reed Williams and Linda Dunham, and the Associated Press and Media General News Service contributed to this report.