Flooding.

[shaner]

I was just thinking about the area it looks like Izzy is gong to track through. There's been a fair amount of rain, especially with Henri so recent. They had flash flood warnings in SE PA and NJ just 2 days ago. It's been a pretty wet summer all around. Do you guys think that regardless of the SS scale, there's going to be a considerable amount of inland flooding?

[Colin]

I think so...

[JCT777]

Probably there will be some flooding in central and northern VA, eastern WV, central and western MD and central/western PA. If the forward speed of Isabel is as fast as predicted, I would not expect much inland flooding outside of these areas. My area (in eastern PA) is expecting 1 to 3 inches of rain, which is not likely to cause much flooding

[shaner]

NOAA is expecting some pretty serious flooding, I think.

NOAA said drought or near-drought conditions proceeded Hurricane Floyd, which hit much of the eastern seaboard in 1999, which allowed more of the excess rain to be absorbed.

But this time it said that the last eight months have been the wettest ever recorded in Virginia and Maryland, and the second wettest recorded in North and South Carolina. In addition the center of Isabel is expected to travel up through Pennsylvania, West Virginia and New Jersey and New York, and those areas have also had exceptionally wet springs and summers. For example, NOAA said the Scranton/Wilkes Barre area of northeastern Pennsylvania has had double the normal rainfall since June.

http://money.cnn.com/2003/09/18/news/companies/isabel/