Navy among those playing it safe with Hurricane Isabel
(Topsail Beach, North Carolina-AP) -- When the Navy moves its fleet to avoid a storm, you know it must be a big one.
The commander of the Second Fleet based at Norfolk, Virginia, ordered 40 ships and submarines out to sea to dodge Hurricane Isabel.
Some 30 other vessels, including two aircraft carriers, will stay in port. A spokesman says they're being "battened down as tight as possible."
Isabel -- with winds of 120 miles-per-hour -- was last reported about 710 miles south-southeast of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. It's moving northwest at around seven miles-per-hour.
Isabel is expected to come ashore somewhere between North Carolina and New Jersey late Thursday or early Friday. The governor of Virginia has already declared a state of emergency.
People along the East Coast are stripping stores of emergency supplies.