Hurricane Isabel lashes US

HURRICANE ISABEL screamed ashore in North Carolina yesterday as furious winds and torrential rains forced evacuations throughout the US mid-Atlantic region, the cancellation of nearly 1,000 flights and shut down the federal government in Washington.

States of emergency were declared in North Carolina, Virginia, Washington DC, Maryland, West Virginia, Delaware, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Nearly a quarter of a million people were ordered to leave their homes and about 800,000 homes and businesses lost electricity as Isabel downed trees and snapped power lines along the North Carolina and Virginia coast.

The storm was expected to wreak more havoc to the power grid as it moved inland.

Isabel pounded the Outer Banks islands of North Carolina with wind gusts up to 168 kph. The eye came ashore at Ocracoke Island at midday.

The nation’s capital braced itself for Isabel’s fury. “It is big, it is ugly. It is a bad storm and it is heading our way,” Washington Mayor Anthony Williams said.

Airlines cancelled nearly 1,000 flights at 19 airports, leaving skies along the East Coast nearly clear of commercial air traffic and disrupting flight schedules nationwide.

Forecasters said the Category 2 storm would weaken as it moved north into Virginia and sideswiped Washington, but would be strong enough to rattle high-rise buildings and could spawn tornadoes.

But the biggest threat was from flooding. Isabel could dump 25cm of rain on a region saturated from months of above-normal rainfall.

More than 240,000 people were told to evacuate low-lying areas of North Carolina and Virginia or risk getting trapped by flooding from storm surges. Nearly 6,000 North Carolina residents sought safety in shelters. Bridges to some islands in the Outer Banks were closed because of the heavy winds. On Ocracoke Island, where the pirate Blackbeard was killed in battle with the British Navy, 80% of the roads were under water.

Crashing waves along the Outer Banks crumbled the deck of an oceanfront hotel, ate away beaches and gouged chunks out of the grass-covered dunes.

North Carolina’s cotton, soybean and sweet potato fields were expected to take a beating. The US Coast Guard halted shipping traffic at Virginia’s Hampton Roads port, the nation’s largest coal-exporting port.

In Washington, the federal government was closed except for emergency personnel and worried residents sandbagged homes to keep water out. Most of Congress got out of town and the US Defence Department, busy with the Iraq war, relied on emergency staff.

The capital’s Metro subway and bus system closed and Amtrak halted virtually all train services south of Washington. US President George W Bush left the capital by helicopter for his Camp David retreat on Wednesday to escape the storm.

In Virginia, the National Guard had helicopters ready to rescue anyone stranded by floods.

“It’s raining hard, it’s messy ... I think people are battening down the hatches for the afternoon and evening as the winds start to pick up here,” said Virginia Governor Mark Warner.