[meowmeow]

On the local DC news tonight, it got very little attention – I thought – considering 1) it looks like it is headed straight at us, and 2) there’s nothing DC news anchors love more than impending doom and panic. Maybe they are saving it for tomorrow. I don’t know what to tell you – I am checking our supplies tonight and doing some shopping tomorrow morning. It doesn’t look safe here either.

[deadhead]

Residents on the Atlantic Coast buy plywood,
bottled water and other supplies as they prepare for the storm.
BY MARTIN MERZE

SEVERE WEATHER

Forecasters warned people from North Carolina to
New Jersey to begin preparing Sunday for a direct
strike later this week by Hurricane Isabel, which
relentlessly maintained its course toward the mainland
-- and its immense destructive power.

Floridians appeared to be out of danger,
but coastal residents farther north bought plywood, bottled
water and other emergency provisions.

'Unfortunately, the models are now in excellent
agreement with Isabel making landfall along the central
U.S. East Coast in about four days,'' said forecaster
Stacy Stewart of the National Hurricane Center in West Miami-Dade County.

The long-range prediction had Isabel slamming into
North Carolina's Outer Banks on Thursday morning. Such
forecasts are subject to wide margins of error, but
meteorologists began speaking in terms of an inevitable
assault somewhere along the middle of the East Coast by Friday.

'Landfall along the U.S mid-Atlantic coast
somewhere between North Carolina and New Jersey between
four or five days is appearing more and more likely,'' Stewart said.

By then, Isabel could lose some of its potency, but
it was expected to remain a major, Category 3 hurricane
on the five-level Saffir-Simpson scale -- with winds of at least 111 mph.

Isabel once again raged through part of the day as
a Category 5 hurricane, one of the most persistent
top-level storms in history. Only 20 Category 5 storms
have formed since 1947 and most quickly lost that distinction.

Isabel spent some of Thursday, Friday, Saturday and
Sunday as a Category 5 storm before diminishing to
just under Category 5 strength by Sunday evening.

'It's about as textbook a hurricane as you will ever find,
said Max Mayfield, the hurricane center's director.

In North Carolina, many residents stocked up on
material required to protect their homes.

John Byrnes of Wilmington said he purchased plywood
and screws to barricade the windows at his house.
His household generator was ready and he had an extra tank of propane gas.

'We're all pretty much taken care of,'
Byrnes told The Associated Press. ``We're in standby mode.''