People flee homes as hurricane closes in

TRAFFIC streamed inland from the vulnerable Outer Banks of North Carolina yesterday as residents and visitors headed for higher ground ahead of the approaching Hurricane Isabel.

About 100,000 people had been urged to evacuate before the storm hit land along the Outer Banks, where rough surf was already pounding the thin, 120-mile-long chain of islands.

Isabel was a strong Category 2 storm yesterday on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale, with sustained wind near 110mph. Forecasters predicted little change in strength before landfall for Isabel, the biggest storm to hit the region since Hurricane Floyd in 1999.