Hurricane Isabel Forecasts Preparations Impact See Also

While churning in the western Atlantic, Isabel's winds peaked at 160 miles per hour, classifying it as a very deadly category five hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane ScaleThe Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale is a scale classifying hurricanes by the intensity of their sustained winds, developed in 1969 by civil engineer Herbert Saffir and National Hurricane Center director Bob Simpson. Classifications are used to gauge the li, the highest possible rating. Clouds associated with Isabel covered an area of 275,000 square miles ( 712,000 square kilometers).

2 Preparations

The U.S. military began moving ships out to sea, including 40 based in the Norfolk, VirginiaNorfolk is a city in the U. state of Virginia in the United States of America. It is an independent city, and therefore part of no county. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 234,403. Norfolk is located on the Elizabeth River, on Ham area to avoid being battered against piers. The Air Force began moving planes from its bases along the coast to bases further inland.

All 921 residents of Ocracoke Island along the North Carolina's vulnerable Outer Banks were ordered to begin evacuating on the afternoon of September 15.

On September 15th, the state of Virginia declared a state of emergency to allow emergency services to prepare for the expected landfall of Isabel. [1]

Hardware and home improvement stores in potentially affected areas reported brisk business of plywood, flashlights, batteries, and portable generators, as residents prepared for the storm's potential impact.

Schools and businesses in Maryland, North Carolina, Virginia, and other mid-atlantic states closed prior to Isabel's arrival to allow time to prepare.

The federal government was closed to all non-essential personnel in Washington, D.C. as employees and residents stayed home and prepared for the storm's fury. This was the first time that the federal government was closed due to the threat of a hurricane.

On September 18 and 19 as Isabel moved ashore, over 5,700 flights were canceled at 20 airports along the Eastern seaboard as airlines sought to move their planes out of the hurricane's path. The cancellations and delays rippled across the country. Washington, D.C.'s transit system shut down bus and rail service Thursday morning, and Amtrak suspended rail service south of the capital city.

3 Impact

Flood waters in Langley, Virginia as a result of Hurricane Isabel

Isabel's sustained wind speed decreased to 95 MPH as it moved ashore on September 18. That evening, Isabel's sustained wind speed decreased to 70 MPH, and the system was downgraded to a tropical storm. The storm surge along the North Carolina coast measured approximately five feet, less than expected. Nevertheless, Isabel caused significant coastal flooding and damaged homes along the coast.

After coming ashore, Isabel began to accelerate to the north. While in the Atlantic, Isabel plodded along at around 8 MPH, was moving at around 14 MPH at landfall and was moving at around 24 MPH as it moved through western Virginia. Because of the storm's speed, flooding was not as bad as originally anticipated (in fact, a packed Virginia Tech football game with Texas A&M was played as scheduled in Blacksburg during the peak of the storm in that area). By 8 AM on the 19th, the storm center was 25 miles east of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and rain from the storm was falling in Ontario.

Isabel, roughly the size of the state of Colorado, unleashed its fury over a wide region from South Carolina to central Ontario and between the eastern Ohio Valley and the Delaware Valley. In total, over 4.3 million people were reported to be without power. This included 525,000 homes and businesses in North Carolina, 78,000 in the District of Columbia, 160,000 in New Jersey, 500,000 in Pennsylvania, 50,000 in Delaware, 40,000 in New York, 21,000 in West Virginia and 40,000 in Ontario. Maryland suffered tremendous damage to its power infrastructure with power lost to nearly half of the state: around 1,250,000 customers. Virginia was the hardest hit, though, with more than 1.6 million customers without power on the night of September 18 and damage in the billions.

President Bush declared major disasters in North Carolina and Virginia, ordering federal aid to both states. The governors of Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Maryland, New Jersey and Delaware declared state emergencies.

Isabel was the first major hurricane to threaten the Mid-Atlantic States and the South since Hurricane Floyd in September 1999. Isabel's greatest impact was due to flood damage, the worst in some areas of Virginia since 1972's Hurricane Agnes.

4 See also

List of notable tropical cyclones

5 External links

Isabel (2003) Isabel

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1 Forecasts