A tropical storm warning is in effect from South Santee River, S.C., to Oregon Inlet, N.C. (about 44 miles north of Cape Hatteras). Cape Hatteras is situated on the easternmost point of the North Carolina coast.

     An analysis of demographic data for the area in the projected path of the storm — about 13,600 square miles from South Santee River, S.C., to Oregon Inlet, N.C., and 20 miles inland — shows that in the 19 counties for which data were compiled, there were about 196,000 people 65 years old and over. This population includes 370,000 children under 18.

     The following is a demographic profile of the possibly affected area:

     Tropical Storm Alex is the first tropical storm of the 2004 Atlantic hurricane season, and also the first tropical system to threaten the U.S. mainland. According to measurements taken by the National Hurricane Center at 2:00 p.m. EDT, Alex packed maximum sustained winds of near 60 miles per hour. The center of the storm was expected to stay offshore near the South Carolina and North Carolina coasts for the next 24 hours, before eventually making a gradual turn to the northeast away from the East Coast.

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Note: These calculations were made possible by projections of the storm’s path by the National Hurricane Center, a part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) National Weather Service, combined with Census 2000 counts contained in LandView 6, a mapping software program.