WASHINGTON, 20 September 2003 — After a terrifying night of exploding power generators and falling trees, which left this correspondent’s neighborhood looking like a war zone, Hurricane Isabel retreated early yesterday morning leaving unprecedented devastation throughout the region. Isabel knocked out power to 4.5 million homes before weakening into a tropical storm earlier.
The storm was blamed for at least 17 deaths: Nine in Virginia, three in North Carolina, two in Maryland, and one each in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Rhode Island.
Almost two million people in the Washington metropolitan area currently are without electricity, and the nation’s capital is at a standstill. And, for the second day in a row, the nation’s government is closed. Throughout the region, government offices, schools, banks and businesses also remained closed yesterday. Metropolitan transportation closed — for the first time in its history — on Thursday at 11 a.m. and remained closed yesterday morning.
Due to flooding caused by Isabel’s pounding rains, many of the area’s residents were forced to evacuate their homes along the Potomac River in Fairfax County and off the shores of the Chesapeake Bay.
Power companies said they would begin assessing the damage and restoring utilities yesterday, after Isabel’s winds — which were reported at up to 65 to 75 miles per hour on Thursday night — subsided to enable crews to work safely.
Washington’s airports — Reagan National, Dulles International and Baltimore International — were closed on Thursday night, and thousands of flights were diverted or grounded. Regional airports said flights were to resume sometime yesterday.
Reports of deaths were minimal, in view of the devastation, which is attributed to the significant emergency measures made throughout the region. “She is a huge storm and she is a monster storm,” said D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams during a news briefing on Thursday afternoon. “Stay calm, stay informed and stay indoors.”
Local governments told residents to call the emergency telephone hotline 911 only for “life-threatening or other extremely serious emergencies.”
On Thursday, before Isabel’s first rains arrived, Washington D.C. was virtually abandoned except for police, emergency and road crews who were on hand to repair or clear out downed power lines and toppled trees and detour traffic around flooded areas. One power company employee was electrocuted while making repairs.
Due to sufficient warnings, public places such as malls and movie theaters were closed early on Thursday afternoon. Residents and businesses alike removed any loose materials and trashcans from their properties that could become projectiles in the storm. All construction was shut down.
President Bush traveled early on Thursday to Camp David, Maryland, and most congressional leaders also left the District well before Isabel arrived. Before leaving, however, they canceled floor votes until next week. Local government and Red Cross officials set up scores of emergency shelters for residents throughout Virginia, Maryland and the District. And county road crews gave out tens of thousands of sandbags to residents concerned about flooding. Yesterday county employees were distributing bags of dry ice to residents without power to generate their refrigerators. “This is the most serious storm we’ve ever had in our service area,” said Jim Norvelle, a spokesman for Dominion Virginia Power, which serves 2 million people in the state and in North Carolina. “The ground has been saturated by so much rain all summer. You get a constant wind, and it uproots trees left and right.”
Perhaps one of the most important lessons of the storm was the ability to maintain a healthy perspective on the devastation: “Look, we’re alive, and that’s what matters more than anything,” said this correspondent’s next door neighbor — after a 220-year-old oak tree in her backyard fell onto part of his house late on Thursday afternoon.
