Hurricane Isabel threat 'not over yet'
Millions of people remained without power today as Hurricane Isabel, which caused at least 24 deaths and potentially billions of dollars in damage, ebbed away from America‘s mid-Atlantic states.
By the time Isabel, which hit North Carolina on Thursday, reached Canada a day later, it had shrivelled from a 100mph hurricane into a 30mph tropical depression.
But Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Michael Brown warned that Isabel’s flooding threat may be a delayed reaction.
“Because Isabel moved through so quickly, we’re going to see some blue skies and people will think it’s all over,” Brown said. “But we still have a very good chance of some flash flooding.”
The state of Virginia had 16 deaths – more than any other state. Six people died in road accidents, five were killed by falling tree limbs, two drowned and three died from apparent carbon monoxide poisoning from generators.
And Virginia Governor Mark R Warner warned that it could be several days before power is restored because of the extensive damage to utility lines.
Along North Carolina’s Outer Banks, the string of narrow islands where Isabel first landed, brilliant sunshine brought the first real glimpse of the destruction.
In the town of Kitty Hawk, at least three fishing piers crumbled into the surf and about 25 ocean-front homes were destroyed or ripped from their foundations.
On the only highway through the 120-mile barrier islands, long stretches of pavement were simply erased or left with holes.
Near the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, Isabel’s storm surge tore a new inlet that stranded 300 residents and floated at least one house into the Pamlico Sound. Authorities were still working to account for all of the 4,000 coastal residents who refused to evacuate.
President George W. Bush has declared federal disasters in Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina.
In all, about 6 million people from North Carolina to New York lost power from Isabel – 1.6 million of them in south-eastern and central Virginia, where uprooted trees and downed power lines closed hundreds of highways and secondary roads.
