Isabel remained a strong Category 4 hurricane until reaching the rare Category 5 status by September Isabel remained at or near Category 5 intensity until September 14, when it weakened to a Category 4 storm.
Weakening continued through Tuesday, decreasing to a Category 2 by late morning Tuesday, September Isabel made landfall near Drum Inlet around 1 p. Isabel moved northwest then accelerated to northeast so by midday Friday, the center of the storm was losing tropical characteristics and was near Cleveland, Ohio.
Most of the effects of Isabel were experienced between Thursday morning and Friday evening. Isabel produced storm surges of 6 to 8 feet above normal tide levels near the point of landfall along North Carolina coast.
Farther north, storm surge values ranged from 4 to 6 feet along the Virginia coast, 2 to 4 feet along the Maryland, Delaware and New Jersey shorelines, and 1 to 2 feet along the coast of Long Island and in the Long Island sound. In the North Carolina estuaries, storm surge values were generally 4 to 6 feet above normal tide levels over the eastern portions of the Pamlico Sound and most of the Albemarle Sound.
Values of ft above normal tide levels were observed in the western end of the Pamlico Sound with a maximum value of Hurricane Isabel left her permanent calling card with the generation of a new inlet located near Cape Hatteras Village, which has since been refilled. Isabel is directly responsible for 17 deaths, mainly through drowning, or persons or automobiles hit by falling trees or limbs. Damage was heaviest in Dare County, where storm surge flooding and strong winds damaged thousands of houses.
Strong winds downed hundreds of trees of across the state of North Carolina, leaving up to , residents without power.
Most areas with power outages had power restored within a few days. The hurricane directly killed one person and indirectly killed two in the state. A federal disaster was declared for 36 North Carolina counties. In North Carolina, hundreds of residents were stranded in Hatteras following the formation of the new "Isabel Inlet". People who were not residents were not allowed to be on the Outer Banks for two weeks after the hurricane due to damaged road conditions.
Initially, long term solutions to the Isabel Inlet such as building a bridge or a ferry system were considered, though they were ultimately canceled in favor of pumping sand and filling the inlet. Geologists were opposed to the solution, stating the evolution of the Outer Banks is dependent on inlets from hurricanes. Dredging operations began about a month after the hurricane struck.
The United States Geological Survey used sand from the ferry channel to the southwest of Hatteras Island, a choice made to minimize the impact to submerged aquatic vegetation and due to the channel being filled somewhat during the hurricane. On November 22, , about two months after the hurricane struck, North Carolina Highway 12 and Hatteras Island were reopened to public access.
On the same day, the ferry between Hatteras and Ocracoke was reopened. Trip to Ocracoke cancelled because of Isabel. For more information, follow these links:. Please Contact Us. Storm Surge Model of Isabel Flooding. Storm Surge in Southern Maryland. Maximum water levels reached throughout the Bay over the course of the storm surge.
Storm surge flooding. George Island, Potomac R. Mary's Co. Inland, the highest totals occur over central and southeast Virginia with widespread areas receiving 4 to 5 inches of rain red areas. Most of central and eastern North Carolina received between 1. Rainfall totals in western North Carolina, the Delmarva peninsula and eastern Maryland were relatively light blue areas. In general, the MPA estimates agree well with radar observations with the exception of far northern North Carolina near the border with Virginia, where radar estimates tend to be somewhat higher.
Overall the rainfall totals from Isabel were relatively low due to the rapid forward motion of the storm. Isabel moved quickly to the northwest after coming ashore at between 18 and 24 mph around the backside of a high pressure system to the east and ahead of an approaching trough from the west. The hurricane and tropical storm symbols mark the positions of Isabel every 6 hours beginning at 5 am EDT on September 18 as reported by the National Hurricane Center.
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