Hurricane Isabel

[Toronto Hottie]

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BREAKING NEWS
UPDATED AT 11:11 AM EDT Monday, Sep. 15, 2003

Isabel tracking same path as Hazel


Photo: NOAA/AP
A National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration satellite view, taken at 10 a.m. EDT Monday, shows Hurricane Isabel off the Atlantic coast.



By CAROLINE ALPHONSO
With a report from Associated Press

Hurricane Isabel, with sustained winds of 250 kilometres an hour yesterday, could hit the eastern United States anywhere between the Carolinas and New Jersey in the next few days, forecasters say. And if it continues moving north, Southern Ontario may feel some of its effects.

"It looks like six days from now it will likely be wet in Southern Ontario. But it can still have a punch to it like Hazel," said David Phillips, senior climatologist at Environment Canada.


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Hurricane Isabel update
at 11 a.m. (1500 UTC)
Centre located near 25.2N 69.4W, accurate within 15 nautical miles
Moving toward the west-northwest (300 degrees) at 7 knots
Estimated minimum central pressure — 945 millibars
Eye diameter — 30 nm
Maximum sustained winds — 120 knots with gusts to 145 knots.
From the U.S. National Hurricane Center
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Hurricane Hazel merged with another storm and ripped through Toronto in October of 1954, killing around 80 people.

Forecasters say weather conditions over the East Coast will prevent this hurricane from turning back out to sea. Classified as a Category 4 storm, just one notch below the strongest hurricane, Isabel can still damage small buildings, blow away mobile homes and batter the shoreline with 4.5-metre waves.

"It's capable of extreme destruction if it were to make landfall as a Category 4," said Eric Blake, a meteorologist at the National Hurricane Center in Miami. A tiny boost in strength, something the centre fears, could make it a rare Category 5 hurricane capable of widespread destruction.

Although forecasters say storms can be unpredictable and long-range forecasts have large possibilities for error, residents in the hurricane's current path began making preparations this weekend just in case Isabel hits.

In coastal Georgia, the Chatham County Emergency Management Agency urged residents to review their hurricane plans. "It's still a long ways away [but] we have to prepare as if it's coming here," said Phillip Webber, the agency's director.

And in Washington, emergency officials were working on getting more sandbags and planned to meet with other department leaders this week.

Mr. Phillips at Environment Canada said forecasters here are not issuing a warning for Southern Ontario, but will continue to monitor the situation in the United States.

"It's very unlikely that it would enter Ontario as a full-fledged hurricane," Mr. Phillips said. "It could be downgraded to a tropical storm."

If anything, he said that Southern Ontario could receive some much-welcomed rain by the end of the week.

"[Hurricanes] are a threat to Canada, but the good news is that they don't stand around and linger and clobber and tease and torment us. They get caught up into the westerly belt, and so they pretty well hightail out of here," Mr. Phillips said.

Hurricane Hazel was different, he said, because it merged with another storm. It had also rained a lot prior to Hazel, so there was no place for all the excess water, which resulted in flooding, he added.

"The problem with looking this far in advance is that yes, it could track further north, but it could just be a wet weekend. Or if it merged with another system . . . it could become a hybrid storm," Mr. Phillips said. "It could have a different personality than the hurricane, but it could still have the evilness of it."

Forecasters say it is likely hurricane Isabel will hit land somewhere along the eastern seaboard.



Good luck guys. My prayers are with you.

Everyone prepared?