RICHMOND, Va., 22 September 2003 — The US mid-Atlantic region struggled to recover from Hurricane Isabel yesterday as nearly 2 million households from North Carolina to Delaware remained without power.
“That’s what’s creating most of the problem for the people — the lack of power,” said Bruce Price, head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s operations center.
Price said the storm had killed at least 28 people throughout the region, mostly from traffic-related accidents. Also among the fatalities were two utility workers trying to restore power in Bowie and Pikesville, Maryland, according to Pauline Sowa of Baltimore Gas & Electric Co.
More than two days after Isabel ripped through the region, crews were still at work mending damaged power lines while many residents lined up for dry ice and others were forced to boil drinking water around powerless water treatment plants.
As of yesterday morning about 900,000 customers in Virginia, 750,000 in Maryland, about 130,000 in North Carolina, 70,000 in Washington, D.C., and 60,000 in Delaware were still without power, emergency officials said.
The center of the storm made landfall on North Carolina’s Outer Banks on Thursday afternoon, then charged to the northwest through central Virginia. In all, more than 10 million customers throughout the region lost power at some point during the storm, officials said.
Officials around the region say power will not be completely restored until the end of the week, Price said.
Residents along the Potomac River and Chesapeake Bay were still struggling with flooding, which was expected to worsen when the rain-swollen Potomac crests later yesterday. Baltimore Gas & Electric declined to identify the two workers or provide details of the accidents which took their lives until their relatives have been notified.
About 7,700 people remained in emergency shelters regionwide, down from a peak of 30,000, Price said.
Emergency officials said it was too soon to assess exact damage figures from Isabel. However, reports of the destruction began to trickle in from some of the hardest-hit areas. In Surry County, Virginia, near Williamsburg residents reported 150 homes destroyed. Statewide, about 2,500 homes have sustained major damage, according to Bob Spieldenner, a spokesman for the Virginia Department of Emergency Management.
In North Carolina, a team of 80 guardsmen, out of 1,329 guardsmen on duty, were installing state-leased generators in parts of the state without power since Thursday.
Emergency management officials in Dare County said electricity had been restored to all of Hatteras Island, with the exception of isolated Hatteras village. The village was cut off from the remainder of Hatteras Island when the storm surge created a new inlet approximately 400 yards wide.
The village, where 300 rode out Hurricane Isabel, is being patrolled by police. Only residents and essential personnel were being allowed in, and then only be boat. Residents of the rest of Hatteras Island were being allowed back on the island today for the first time since Thursday.
Insurers said on Saturday the total damage bill from the storm may be between $500 million and $1 billion, far less than the $4 billion feared earlier in the week when Isabel was still over the Atlantic and graded as a category 5 hurricane. Its strength had diminished by the time it made landfall in a thinly populated area.
