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Hurricane Isabel
Wed Nov 12, 2003
Listen in RealAudio 
Though Hurricane Isabel affected much of the eastern seaboard when it struck on September 18
North Carolina took the first hit. Leda Hartman takes a look at how two towns on the North
Carolina coast fared.
Hurricane Isabel was the worst storm to hit North Carolina since Hurricane Floyd in 1999.
Floyd flooded the entire eastern third of the state, completely submerging the town of
Princeville. Sam Knight is the Princeville town manager and a lifelong resident. He says this
year, a dike successfully held back the Tar River.
SK: And the reason for that was that the water was so much lower this time. At the onset of
this hurricane, the river was only 4 feet deep. And it takes 19 feet to hit flood level – and
then 36 feet to come over the dike, so there was no danger in flooding.
But not every place was so lucky.
DD: The eye went right over Swan Quarter.
That’s Hyde County Manager Don Davenport. Swan Quarter, the county seat, lies right on the
edge of the North Carolina mainland, on Pamlico Sound. Isabel flooded a third of Hyde County.
According to Davenport, that’s because it took so long to pass through.
DD: One thing that happened was the storm did not speed up the way it was forecast to do. It
stayed around 8, 9, 10 miles an hour, when it was forecast to get up to 20, 25. It just stayed
around and pushed the tide in a lot longer.
People in swan quarter are going ahead with plans to rebuild. Davenport says it’s a great
place to live 364 days of the year. For the Weather Notebook, I’m Leda Hartman.
The Weather Notebook is funded through grants from Subaru of America and the National Science
Foundation.
Today's Links
Pictures from the International Space Station:
http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=10364
The Hurricane of '38:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/hurricane38/index.html
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