My parents are in the Tidewater area and Isabel was devastating to their community. So many people lost everything, mostly due to flooding.
We’re a few hours northwest of them and while it was only tropical storm strength when it got to us, it did a fair mount of damage. I’ve experienced hurricanes but Isabelle was the creepiest. I don’t know if we had micro bursts or small tornadoes with it, but patches of trees were leveled around our house.
I hope Irene isn’t another Isabelle or worse.
Isabel was preceded by a 2 week deluge. With the ground as saturated as it was, it didn’t take a whole lot to topple trees. If it was tornados, the trees would have snapped, not toppled.