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Hurricane Isaias Slams East Coast

By Scott Briscoe
4 August 2020

Today in Security

Hurricane Isaias touched shore overnight near the South Carolina-North Carolina border as a Category 1 hurricane. It then swept up the North Carolina coast with hurricane and tropical storm force winds, its storms producing voluminous rainfall and tornados. At 9 a.m. EDT, the tropical storm’s center was leaving Virginia’s Hampton Roads and Norfolk area heading NNE toward Maryland and Delaware’s Eastern shores.

According to the National Weather Service (NWS), the storm is tracking east of Interstate-95, with cities along the highway, including Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, DC, seeing high winds and heavy rain this morning into early afternoon in Philadelphia. From approximately 3 a.m. through 9 a.m., the Washington/Reagan National Airport received 2.02 inches of rain. The 8 a.m. NWS advisory on the storm said:

“Isaias is moving toward the north-northeast near 33 mph (54 km/h), and this general motion accompanied by some additional increase in forward speed is expected through today. On the forecast track, the center of Isaias will continue to move near or along the coast of the mid-Atlantic states today, and move across the northeastern United States into southern Canada tonight.”

An early-morning tornado touched down in Bertie County, North Carolina, killing at least one person authorities said. According to The Washington Post, as of 8:23 a.m. EDT more than 300,000 people in Virginia are without power. Flooding and power outages remain a significant threat with this storm between storm surge in coastal areas and heavy rainfalls inundating local streams and city drainage systems.

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