State disaster officials tracking Tropical Storm Hanna will remain vigilant through this weekend, even though recent forecasts show the storm will bypass the Georgia coast.

“The forecast could still change,” Georgia Emergency Management Agency spokesman Ken Davis said Wednesday afternoon.

GEMA’s state operating center in southeastern Atlanta will continue 24-hour operations through Saturday, with about 50 employees representing state and federal agencies from the Georgia State Patrol to the U.S. Coast Guard working 12-hour shifts each.

This comes despite the fact that the National Hurricane Center shows the storm sputtering some 900 miles south of Georgia. What had once been a hurricane was downgraded to a tropical storm early Tuesday morning by the National Hurricane Center in Miami as it stalled over the Bahamas.

State forecasters anticipated the storm would speed up again, likely grazing the state’s coast as a Category 1 hurricane. GEMA was preparing coastal communities for heavy rains, high tides and winds of up to 95 mph.

But the hurricane center Wednesday said the storm changed course and could miss Georgia altogether, making landfall on the northernmost South Carolina coast.

Davis said the preparation — from mobilizing some 250 state employees to staging equipment and supplies just off the coast — was hardly in vain.

“Even if Georgia is not impacted by Hanna, it served as a good reminder,” he said. “We all get complacent, and we need to be more aware. We’d rather err on the side of being careful. It only takes one [Hurricane] Katrina.”

In Savannah, the Chatham Emergency Management Agency issued a statement at mid-morning advising residents to “continue to monitor their radio, TV and NOAA weather radio for information on storm progress.”

The National Hurricane Center’s latest projected path brings the storm ashore north of Charleston, S.C., on Saturday.

Earlier tracks had it brushing the coast near the Georgia-Florida state line and then heading north to South Carolina.

Federal, state and local emergency response teams, the American Red Cross and some coastal businesses and residents were planning for the worst.

Chatham County, home of Savannah and Tybee Island, is preparing for the possibility of 6- to 11-foot storm surges and winds reaching 125 miles per hour. And that’s without a direct hit.

Forecasters at the National Weather Service office in Peachtree City said Hanna should have little impact on metro Atlanta’s weather, although a cold front moving into the state from the west will bring a slight chance for weekend showers and thunderstorms.

GEMA meteorologist Chris Walsh said Hanna’s effects will be felt on the Georgia coast by Thursday evening. “It’s not going to make landfall here, but we’re planning for a Category 2 hurricane.”

Category 2 hurricanes bring winds of 96 to 110 mph.

“Maybe my biggest problem won’t be which of my kids’ games will I go to on Friday night. It may be where will we spend the night?” said Deborah Sheppard, an environmental advocate who moved to the Georgia coast 12 years ago and lives on the tidal marsh in Meridian, north of Brunswick.

In Florida, Gov. Charlie Crist declared a state of emergency, placing emergency teams on alert. But like their Georgia counterparts, Florida officials are taking a wait-and-see stance before calling for evacuations.

Candice Temple, spokeswoman for Georgia’s Glynn County, said forecasters remain unsure of Hanna’s exact path. From Monday to Tuesday, the projected path changed four times, shifting landfall from Savannah to Charleston to Daytona Beach.

“We prefer to wait until more information is available,” Temple said.

At the same time, police, firefighters and other critical emergency responders are getting ready by topping off their fuel tanks. Public works crews are clearing the roadways and drainage areas of debris — some still left from Hurricane Fay, Temple said.

At the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s regional headquarters in DeKalb County, teams from the Army, Forest Service, Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Health and Human Services and other federal agencies were ramping down from Hurricane Gustav and turning their attention to the East Coast.

At a Tuesday morning briefing meteorologist Brandon Bolinski told more than 100 federal officials, “Once it starts going, it’s going to start moving pretty quickly. Don’t sit and wait too long.”

— Staff writer Mike Morris contributed to this report.