MzWings
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The Coming Flood
« on: Sep 23rd, 2003, 6:08pm » |
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 This is unbelievable...
Risk From Isabel May Not Be the Winds
By Ned Potter ABC News
Sept. 16— The winds of Hurricane Isabel have weakened from its weekend peak of 160 mph, but weather experts are still worried.
The Category 2 storm was 570 miles from the Outer Banks of North Carolina this evening and was projected to make landfall sometime Thursday. Although somewhat diminished, it can still bring devastating damage to the East Coast — and regions hundreds of miles beyond the coastline. Much like previous downgraded hurricanes, Isabel's threat isn't just in its mighty winds.
Hurricane Floyd had withered by the time it made landfall in the Carolinas, four years ago this week. It was a Category 2 hurricane, with winds below 110 mph.
Emergency managers said they were grateful it did not do more damage. Nobody guessed that 50 people would die in the floods that followed.
"We were expecting wind, but we weren't expecting this kind of flooding in this area," said a woman as she evacuated her home near Rocky Mount, N.C.
The flooding from Floyd came in the middle of a tremendous drought. Hurricane Isabel approaches when just the opposite is true. This year so far is the rainiest on record for Virginia and Maryland, the second-rainiest for North and South Carolina. The records go back 109 years.
"We've had heavy rains over the last week, and throughout the summer, and the ground is saturated, flooding, and the rivers are at high levels already," said Eric Williford, a meteorologist with Weather Predict Inc., a private forecasting firm in Raleigh, N.C. "Any additional tropical rainfall on top of that is going to exacerbate the situation."
From Drought to Deluge
Most of the eastern United States has shifted, over the last year, from a four-year-long drought to an unusually rainy period. Sections of the Appalachians have received 24 more inches of rain this year than they did in the same part of 2002 — and many of those places now are right in Isabel's projected path.
Since it is entirely possible for the storm to leave 10 to 20 inches of new rain, state and local officials are worried.
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/wnt/US/isabel_flooding030916.html
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