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Dang Isabel, She is going to ruin my weekend!  She is headed right for us...  Quote: Hurricane Isabel Closes in on U.S. East Coast
38 minutes ago Add Science - Reuters to My Yahoo!
By Jim Loney NAGS HEAD, N.C. (Reuters) - Hurricane Isabel closed in on the North Carolina coast on Wednesday, threatening to lash a large expanse of the U.S. eastern seaboard with heavy rains and winds of 110 mph.
Tens of thousands of people on the state's low-lying coast were urged to leave or risk getting caught in flooding caused by storm surges expected to reach up to 11 feet.
Isabel, still several hundred miles away in the Atlantic Ocean, was on a course that would put its center over North Carolina on Thursday but bring stormy weather by Wednesday night, forecasters said. It was then expected to move north through Virginia, keeping west of Washington.
The governors of Virginia and North Carolina declared states of emergencies, enabling them to mobilize workers and activate the National Guard.
A steady stream of cars, trucks and vans had headed west, away from the popular Outer Banks islands that jut into the Atlantic from North Carolina's northeastern coast.
By Wednesday, the streets were mostly empty on the islands, home to 55,000 people, as a few stragglers packed cars and boarded up homes.
"When the water starts coming over the dunes, you don't want to be here," said Bill Wilson, putting shutters on the beachfront home his family has owned since 1911.
"Surf's up!" proclaimed one of many messages scrawled on plywood shutters. Another said, "Issie, you put me in a tissy. Go away."
Isabel, a rare Category 5 storm at one point during its trek over the Atlantic, has become a Category 2 storm on the Saffir-Simpson 1 to 5 scale that measures hurricanes' destructive power, the U.S. National Hurricane Center (news - web sites) said.
"When it was a Category 5, I thought there was no point in boarding up," said Rich Harrison, a Washington resident securing his beachfront vacation home on Nag's Head. "When it started lessening I said, 'We should go down and make sure the windows don't break.' .... We're going to pull out today."
HURRICANE WARNING EXTENDED
The center early on Wednesday extended a hurricane warning, alerting residents to hurricane conditions within 24 hours, for the coast from Cape Fear in North Carolina north to Chincoteague in Virginia, including the Chesapeake Bay south of Smith Point. A hurricane watch, meaning possible hurricane conditions in 36 hours, was in effect north of Smith Point and the tidal Potomac.
Category 2 storms can badly damage mobile homes, fell trees and damage roofs, doors and windows. Forecasters said Isabel could dump up to 10 inches (25 cm) of rain.
Isabel was a huge storm with hurricane-force winds extending 145 miles from its center. The U.S. Census Bureau (news - web sites) said it could affect 50 million people in 13 states.
Officials in low-lying Dare County, which includes the central islands of North Carolina's Outer Banks, issued a mandatory evacuation order for 30,000 residents and 75,000 visitors. Tiny Ocracoke Island and the state's northern coastal area of Currituck County was also ordered evacuated.
The U.S. Navy (news - web sites) sent 40 ships and submarines from Hampton Roads, Virginia, out to sea to ride out the storm. Warplanes were moved from several bases to safety inland and the Navy asked 130,000 active duty personnel to leave the Norfolk, Virginia, area. At 8 a.m. EDT Wednesday, Isabel's center was 425 miles south-southeast of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, at latitude 29.7 north and longitude 72.4 west. It was heading north-northwest at 9 mph. | |
09-17-2003, 11:56 AM 
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