From Philly.com — One after another they came, an armada of dump trucks depositing tons of sand on what used to be a beach here.

Before Tropical Storm Hanna’s expected arrival in New Jersey on Saturday, more than 300 truckloads of sand will have been dumped on the north end of the Strathmere section of Upper Township as part of emergency preparations for the storm, which forecasters say could bring 60 mph wind gusts and from 4 to 7 inches of rain to the state.

That is likely to cause downed trees, flooding and power outages, said state climatologist David Robinson.

“Everyone really needs to keep an eye on this,” he said. “These are not disastrous winds, but they will bring some damage.”

As the dump trucks brought sand to Strathmere, a resort community about 15 miles south of Atlantic city, Phil Heun Jr. used a mammoth earth mover to flatten it out. Before the shipments started arriving, Heun said the ocean was lapping up against the lawn of an oceanfront house.

“Without this sand, it would probably go right into these houses,” Heun said from the cab of his earth mover, some 20 feet above the ground.

But the angry surf was chewing away at the new piles of sand almost as fast as Heun could lay them down , making it clear that the work would be no more than a stopgap measure designed to get the area through the weekend.

Tim Buckland’s family has owned an oceanfront house in Strathmere for 50 years, across a narrow street from badly eroded dunes that drop off 15 feet into the ocean; there used to be a beach there.

He and his family were on the beach Friday playing in larger than normal waves after bringing all the deck furniture inside and making sure windows were secured.

“These shipments of sand are a good thing, but if they don’t work out, the people down here could lose their houses,” he said.

The scene was the same up and down the shore, as homeowners brought planters and hanging baskets inside, moved barbecue grills into sheds, and lifeguards stored buoys and rescue boards inside huts.

In an oceanfront trailer park on a narrow spit of sand between the ocean and bay in Strathmere, Joe Gill was moving the portable refrigerator inside and propping it up several feet off the floor of his trailer. He has fresh memories of a storm earlier this year in which water from the ocean and bay met in the Florida room outside his trailer, swamping it in nearly a foot of water.

“I hope it doesn’t hit as bad as they say it might,” said Gill, who lives in Mullica Hill, Gloucester County.

He and his wife were clearing out for the weekend, planning to stop at an Atlantic City casino on the way home to test their luck.

“Hopefully this’ll still be here when we get back,” he said of their trailer.

In Middle Township and Avalon, dozens of boat owners were taking their vessels out of the water Friday, fearing they could be damaged by Hanna.

“The last storm, three boats next to mine got trashed,” said Tom Estlow, who was helping a friend take a 23-foot Scarab out of the water on a trailer. “The dock next to us disappeared. We learned from that.”

As of 2 p.m. Friday, Hanna had maximum sustained winds near 70 mph and was centered about 310 miles south of Wilmington, N.C. The latest forecast called on Hanna to make landfall on the northern coast of South Carolina early Saturday before marching quickly up the Atlantic Seaboard and pushing into New England.

It is expected to pass either by or over New Jersey late Saturday afternoon into the evening, Robinson said. Most of the state could experience win gusts of between 40 and 60 mph, with the strongest winds along the coast.

But the storm will impact the entire state; even Sussex County could see wind gusts of nearly 40 mph, he said, and rivers and streams could overflow their banks if the higher precipitation amounts come to pass, he added.

Authorities were ramping up for the storm. NJ Transit promised Atlantic City extra buses if they were needed for an evacuation, and casinos were told to top off the fuel in their generators in case power goes out.

The Civil Air Patrol was placed on alert, readying for missions that could include search and rescue or delivery of supplies. And the state Office of Emergency management and State Police were preparing to activate New Jersey’s emergency operations center outside of Trenton should conditions warrant.

By Sunday morning, the storm should be in New England, and by the afternoon, skies should be clearing in New Jersey.