Hurricane_Isabel

Landfall | Summary
Posting Date: September 18, 2003, 3:30:00 PM

As of 3:00 p.m. EDT, Thursday, September 18, 2003, Hurricane Isabel was located about 50 miles (80 km) east-southeast of Greenville, North Carolina. Isabel made landfall shortly before 2:00 p.m. EDT near Drum Inlet, North Carolina, between Cape Lookout and Ocracoke Island. According to the National Hurricane Center (NHC), the eye wall began passing over North Carolina during the late morning hours. Isabel had weakened somewhat before reaching the coast. Maximum sustained winds were near 95 mph (153 kph) at landfall and minimum central pressure had risen to an estimated 959 mb. Isabel is currently moving toward the northwest at near 20 mph (32 kph), and is expected to turn toward the north-northwest over night. Strong winds accompanied by hurricane-force gusts are expected later today over higher elevations across northern Virginia and Maryland. Early reports include a collapsed pier and roof damage to homes and hotels in Virginia Beach. Siding was ripped from buildings in Atlantic Beach, North Carolina. Some roads and bridges are impassable and more than 900 airline flights in the Northeast have been cancelled. Power has been cut to more than 550,000 homes in North Carolina and Virginia. States of emergency were declared in at least five states and the District of Columbia. Using the available information about the meteorological parameters and track of this storm, the AIR tropical cyclone modeling team has run hundreds of scenarios. Five of these, along with wind speed and loss maps, are now posted on the Scenarios page of this web site. In addition, event sets are available to all clients for download.

Landfall | Downloads
Posting Date: September 18, 2003, 3:30:00 PM