Isabel's fury flattens homes, raises caskets
Advertiser News Services
NAGS HEAD, N.C. — Hurricane Isabel plowed into North Carolina's Outer Banks with 100-mph winds and pushed its way yesterday up the Eastern Seaboard, weakening to a tropical storm by evening but not before swamping roads and knocking out power to more than 2.5 million people.
Associated Press
Crumpling seaside homes and motels into kindling, raising caskets from the sodden earth and shoving the tumultuous Atlantic into coastal sounds, Isabel's eye howled ashore with the high tide at 1 p.m. Eastern time near Drum Inlet, between Cape Lookout and Ocracoke Island, N.C.
Sean Fayhey ran from Virginia Beach surges as Hurricane Isabel made landfall yesterday with 95-mph winds.
One electrical lineman was killed in the storm's aftermath, and authorities said an undetermined number of people were missing. Two people were killed by falling trees.
Isabel's sustained winds at landfall were estimated at 95 mph, down considerably from the 160-mph fury it exhibited far at sea where it became the first Category 5 hurricane in five years.
But Isabel was still 700 miles wide and potent enough to cut power to more than 2 million customers in North Carolina and southeastern Virginia alone. More than 430,000 customers in Maryland, 78,000 in the District of Columbia and 10,000 in New Jersey also lost power.
The storm shoved water from the Pamlico Sound as high as roadside mailboxes in Craven County, 50 miles from shore. It tore up houses and mobile homes, leaving air conditioners and freezers marooned in ditches.
"I never expected to see this much damage," said Chris Adams, surveying the ruins in Nags Head, N.C. "This is awful."
The storm destroyed the 540-foot Jennette's Pier in Nags Head.
More than 14,000 people fled their coastal homes and thousands were left without telephone service.
Looting was reported in waterfront homes in Pamlico County, N.C., where Isabel hit hardest.
"In my 40 years of living in this county, I've never experienced anything like this," said Robbie York of Pamlico County's emergency management agency.
She estimated flooding in her area was 6 inches to 8 inches deeper that it was for Hurricanes Floyd or Dennis.
A coffin was discovered floating along a road in Pamlico County and flooding raised caskets from graves in Harlow, Craven County, where dozens of homes were reported damaged or destroyed.
In the Craven County neighborhood of Great Neck Point, Richard Lawrence strapped life jackets on his children during the height of the storm, fearing their home would be lost.
Residents were urged not to drink water in flood areas, and President Bush declared 26 Eastern North Carolina counties disaster areas, making grants available.
For a storm whose approach had been heralded for more than a week, Isabel didn't linger.
Clipping along at nearly 20 miles an hour, Isabel's fury was expected to diminish as it moved overland, but remnants threaten cities as far north as New York state.
Schools and nonessential federal offices closed down yesterday in Washington, D.C. Just before nightfall, winds reached up to 55 mph, downing trees throughout the city.
Flooding will be a concern today from Virginia to western Pennsylvania. Forecasters said that the storm was capable of dumping up to a foot of rain in West Virginia's mountainous Eastern Panhandle.
In York County, Va., sheriff's deputies rescued a family of seven trapped on a street when trees fell and blocked the path to their car, county spokesman Greg Davy said.
Isabel was felt in airports across the nation as more than 2,000 commercial flights were canceled, mostly to destinations in the east.
On North Carolina's Outer Banks, roads were lost beneath a porridge of debris made from blown sand, tangled power lines and vehicles as large as SUVs.
The full extent of the damage won't be known until today when power crews, National Guard troops and other authorities are able to reach remote areas.
The Charlotte Observer, Miami Herald and Associated Press contributed to this report.
