ISABEL ANNIVERSARY, one year ago tonight.

[WXBUFFJIM]

One year ago tonight on Thursday September 18th, 2003, it was a long night as tropical storm Isabel tracked just west of the Chesapeake Bay and Tidal Potomac and into northwest Virginia, western Maryland, and southwestern Pennsylvania. A tropical storm warning was issued on this date on Chesapeake Bay from north of Pooles Island down to Smith Point including the Tidal Potomac, The Delaware Bay, and the Atlantic coast waters from Chincoteague, Virginia northward into the Sandy Hook, NJ area. Further south Hurricane warnings were issued on Chesapeake Bay from Smith Point southward to the Mouth of the Bay and on the Atlantic coastal waters from Chincoteague, VA southward to Cape Fear, NC including Pamlico and Albemarle Sounds. Isabel was a very large hurricane as it approached the North Carolina coast on this date one year ago. Hurricane Isabel made landfall on September 18th, 2003 at 1 PM EDT near Drum Inlet on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Minimum central pressure at Drum Inlet was 957 mb with max sustained winds of 105 mph at landfall. As Isabel made landfall, it was a very large hurricane with hurricane force winds extending outward up to 115 miles away from the center of circulation while tropical storm force winds extended outward up to 345 miles from the center of circulation. The highest wind gust reported during Isabel's landfall was at Ocracoke where a wind gust to 105 mph occurred with a sustained wind of 80 mph. Cape Hatteras reported a sustained wind of 79 mph with a gust up to 98 mph along with a 5-6 foot storm surge combined with large battering waves. Duck Pier peaked at 92 mph gust while Wallops Island, MD got walloped with 61 mph gust right after Isabel made landfall on Drum Inlet, NC.

At 5 PM EDT on September 18th, Isabel weakened a bit down to 90 mph and was centered near Roanoke Rapids, NC. Movement was towards the northwest at 24 mph and the minimum central pressure was up to 960 millibars at this point. The Virginia Beach area experienced wind gusts near hurricane force with 70-80 mph wind gusts and a storm surge of 7.5 feet breaching the seawall on Virginia Beach. A storm surge of 9 feet or greater would put the hotel strip and the boardwalk at Virginia Beach completely under water. However some overwash and sea foam did splash onto the boardwalk at Virginia Beach during the early and mid afternoon as east winds and a high tide piled the water on. On top of the 7.5 foot surge, there was huge waves on top of the surge with 20-25 foot seas eating away at the far end of the Virginia Beach Fishing Pier. Prior to Isabel, we would have to go back to 1985 to see the Virginia Beach Pier fall victim to the Atlantic courtesy of Hurricane Gloria.

As the evening progressed with each passing rain squall, the winds just got stronger here in southeast Baltimore County. At 11 PM EDT, Hurricane Isabel was downgraded to a tropical storm with maximum sustained winds of 65 mph. Isabel at this point was centered about 35 miles northwest of Richmond, Virginia. The huge difference we dealt with here in Essex, MD was the fact we had a northeast wind for most of the daylight hours on September 18th. However as it got dark around 7 PM EDT, the winds came in from the south southeast, which began to surge water up Chesapeake Bay. At the same time that happened, the winds only got stronger as the center of Isabel made it's closest approach to our area. But we must remember that it wasn't just Isabel that caused this problem with enhanced wind gusts and historic storm surge. Complicating the matters was the fact we also had strong high pressure centered near the New England coast, which caused a pressure gradient wind that extended well away from the center of circulation, hence the tropical storm force winds were felt over a wide area roughly 345 miles out from the center of circulation.

As the center of circulation made it's closest approach to Baltimore during the predawn hours on September 19th, 2003, sustained winds were 45-50 mph with gusts of 60-75 mph. Reagan National had a sustained wind of 45 mph with gusts to 58 mph. BWI Airport had a peak gust of 54 mph. Pax River had a sustained wind of 56 mph with gusts up to 69 mph. Andrews Air Force Base gusted to 70 mph while Quantico Air Base experience a wind gust over hurricane force with 78 mph gusts. The problem was all of these sustained winds and wind gusts came in from the south southeast, which piled water up Chesapeake Bay, the Tidal Potomac, and it's adjacent rivers and tributaries, which made this storm so significant. For instance down in Annapolis, Maryland, a storm surge of 7.5 feet occurred in isabel, which was an all time record for the Annapolis City Dock. The old record was set during the 1933 Chesapeke Potomac Hurricane with a 6 foot surge back in that storm in Annapolis. The city of Baltimore experienced storm surge up to 7 feet flooding most of the downtown streets. This high water had a negative effect to one building in particular, the World Trade Center. The water was so high, it leaped into the basement of WTC damaging the power systems down in the basement at the World Trade Center. Power was out at The World Trade Center for several weeks while repairs were made to fix the problem.

Here in the Essex area, winds were estimated to be sustained at 45-50 mph with gusts into the 60s. Tree limbs were blown down in many locations. One tree actually fell down into the side of a house and rested in place there. Storm surge flooding on Back River ranged from 6-8 feet above normal tide level, that's the estimate. It was a storm unlike any other we experienced given the major coastal flooding that occurred. But we must keep in mind that this situation could have potentially been much worse if Isabel had stayed a category 5 or was a category 4 hurricane when it made landfall on the North Carolina coast. To see 45-50 mph sustained wind with gusts of 60-70 mph in Maryland producing 6-8 foot surge was just totally amazing. Can you imagine if we had 100 mph winds with gusts over 120 mph. That would have meant surge potentially 2-3 times higher than what we experienced. Either way, an historic event one year ago tonight and something I'll never forget, I'll say that right now.

http://community.webshots.com/album/91503828efqviB shows the pics I took during and after Isabel.

[rainstorm]

it was very scary here with power out 10 days. 11 foot surge on the james river.

[WXBUFFJIM]

Dang 11 foot surge on James River. No wonder that was scary. Those winds probably didn't help matters much either. Scary stuff, but luckily we haven't seen that this year.

[sitcommom]

I remember that night well...loud crashes and bangs with the wind howling. The next morning we woke up to 6 trees down in our yard. We didn't have power for five days (since we have well water, and all electrical everything it was a bit of a nuisance). It made me appreciate life's simple pleasures like flushing the toilet.

[tronbunny]

I just "escaped" Richmond after a week of outdoor work, there.
2 colleagues from Tampa were "stuck" in a junky long-term stay hotel.
What a mess.

[BaltimoreGirl]

Hi, Jim!

Geeze, I can't really believe it's been a year already, since Isabel graced us with her presence. And what a presence it was. It was the first night of a long, long nightmare One year later, we still are not done with the rebuilding and we were one of the lucky ones who weren't completely flooded out. The storm was just too hard on our elderly dog and she passed away a week after the storm. Basic cleanup(just removal of the junk that washed up, the oil, the sewerage, wood, piers, boats and trees) took weeks. It encompassed our lives.We lost all of our business equipment and had a ten year old business that we had to start again from scratch. Then we found out about the foundation damage. For 9 months, we lived in one room of the house with 4 people(me hubby and the kids) sleeping on one sectional sleeper sofa. My children spent Christmas in a home with no walls or floors as we fought the mold that just wouldn't go away.

Half my street is still lined with vacant houses, or empty lots with FEMA trailers. Only a handful of people have been able to rebuild, so far, and some of those who rebuilt, have their homes up for sale. No one wants to go through this ever again.

My heart really goes out to the victims of each and every hurricane, as now I know what it's like to try to pick up the pieces, and go on with your life. I can imagine what the folks down south are going through and really can't understand anyone wanting to experience a hurricane of any magnitude.

But, it is looking up, and there is some bright sunshine at the end of this journey. We are rebuilding, and we actually have some walls and floors now. When we're done, our house will be better than it was before. No one in my family was was hurt (although 2 people did die in our neighborhood directly due to the storm) and it brought us all closer together. Hubby and I joke that if we didn't kill each other during this rebuilding, we could make it thru anything, lol. Heck of a way to find out what you're made of.

[WXBUFFJIM]

I'll admit BG, just the fact that you folks are pulling closer together at a time like this is peerhaps the best thing of all. Despite the fact times haven't been that great since Isabel, just the fact you folks are pulling together is really good to hear.

[EverythingIsEverything]

Wow 1 year already! It was a complete mess here in Va. Beach, trees down at every turn, no gas or lights for weeks, the flooding of downtown Norfolk. And my job for almost panicking because the lights where out for 7 days, maybe that was some karma for not letting us leave early to prepare for Isabel anyways...although most people took it upon themselves and left work anyways LOL Thank God he has brought all of us through, bless those whom are still going through a rough time since Isabel struck 1 year ago!

[ssmith]

A year hard to belive I still haven't finish removing all of that old shed out back.Took almost 7 months to get a match for the siding lost on both ends of the house,we face due East toward the Bay about a mile from it.

here's some photos we took before and after.

http://www.buckroebeach.net/iss.html
http://buckroebeach.net/iss2.html
http://buckroebeach.net/iss3.html

Sam

[iluvseashore]

storm stories tonight(Sunday) about Isabel at 8:30. Hugo tomorrow night 8:00

[BaltimoreGirl]

I'll admit BG, just the fact that you folks are pulling closer together at a time like this is perhaps the best thing of all. Despite the fact times haven't been that great since Isabel, just the fact you folks are pulling together is really good to hear.

Thanks, Jim. You know, It would be really easy for something like this to tear a family apart. People who haven't ever been affected by something like this, really have no clue. You really think the loss has hit you right away, but it doesn't. Right after the storm, you're shell shocked. You march around with that "deer in the headlights" "What the hell just happened" look on your face and simply go thru the motions. You know when it hits you? Weeks/months later, when the Red Cross, county workers and the Fema volunteers leave, and it's just you and the wreck, that once was your home is left, and you just sit and wonder "What the hell do I do now?" For the last few weeks/months your life has been revolved around trying to clean up, save what you can, and returning to some sort of normalcy, but your normalcy has evolved to include things that you never thought possible-some folks living in hotels, living in trailers(do you know that it took almost 3 months for some of my neighbors to even get a trailer?) living in rooms lined with sheeted plastic, so that the mold from the walls doesn't seep through to hand me down furniture that a friend has graciously given you to replace your destroyed furniture. Most of our belongings are still in a rented storage container that is one big lawn ornament.

But you have got to see the humor and some fun, in it all, otherwise one could go crazy. Like the neighbor of mine, who insisted on decorating his storage container for Christmas. He had no home, but his storage container was lit up like Shea Stadium. He had a sign up on the front-Even Isabel can't stop Christmas".

We found out that soap on concrete slab floors made a pretty good skating ring, tarps worked great as tableclothes and playtents, and that you could actually BBQ a Thanksgiving turkey. Tying a rope between 2 house jacks made a pretty darn good clothesline and changing room(when used in conjunction with a tarp) and I also found out that duct tape, really had 1001 uses(McGyver has NOTHING on me,lol). The main realization that I made during this year, is that I really didn't need all that crap I had in my house. Life is so much less cluttered. Sort of a "Clean Sweep" by hurricane, LOL.

[Skywatch_NC]

At 5 PM EDT on September 18th, Isabel weakened a bit down to 90 mph and was centered near Roanoke Rapids, NC. Movement was towards the northwest at 24 mph and the minimum central pressure was up to 960 millibars at this point. The Virginia Beach area experienced wind gusts near hurricane force with 70-80 mph wind gusts and a storm surge of 7.5 feet breaching the seawall on Virginia Beach. A storm surge of 9 feet or greater would put the hotel strip and the boardwalk at Virginia Beach completely under water. However some overwash and sea foam did splash onto the boardwalk at Virginia Beach during the early and mid afternoon as east winds and a high tide piled the water on. On top of the 7.5 foot surge, there was huge waves on top of the surge with 20-25 foot seas eating away at the far end of the Virginia Beach Fishing Pier. Prior to Isabel, we would have to go back to 1985 to see the Virginia Beach Pier fall victim to the Atlantic courtesy of Hurricane Gloria.

*************************************************************

Thank you very much, Jim! I used to live in Roanoke Rapids, NC.

One of the memories I have is hearing a loud swoosh outside...from inside the house...later checked and a downed oak took out my next door neighbor's newly-remodeled back deck.

Also, for a while my Dad and I stood at our open garage door briefly and watched as trees across the street swayed...this was of course a few hours before Isabel's center neared my city/county area. Her center did result in a tornado warning in a neighboring county.

We lost power for 26 hours...but thankfully made it through through Isabel in good shape. Unfortunately other areas didn't though.

Eric