another Isabel report

Here is another very thorough report from former CSU Atmos student Zach Eitzen,
now in Hampton, VA.

Also since the last report was mailed out, I heard from my dad, Bill McNoldy, in
Reading, PA.  He reported that winds were pretty breezy, rain was moderate, but
his area still lost power for nearly a day.

Brian


-------- Original Message --------

I have weathered my first hurricane, and I'd have to say that I was impressed,
even though sustained winds here were generally "only" up to 50 mph, and the
peak 
gust here in Hampton was around 83 mph. Me, my cat, my car, and my apartment are
all okay, although there was considerable damage to the apartment complex that I
live in. A fair bit of vinyl siding was blown off, and three chimneys came down,
as well. We lost power for 48 hours, and phone service for about 30 hours. The
water is currently unsafe to drink, but I have plenty of bottled water for now.

Strangely, the phone service went out yesterday morning, under sunny skies with
only breezy conditions. I am thankful that services were restored so quickly -
many people will have to wait a lot longer.

My apartment is at the lofty elevation of 15 feet, so I didn't need to worry 
about storm surge, but there was considerable flooding in Poquoson and other
locales along the Chesapeake Bay, even up to Baltimore. I was very impressed
with the amount of wind damage/power outages so far inland. I've included a map
of power outages that I took from the local power company on Friday morning
(while I still had phone service but no power). As Isabel came ashore, there
appeared to be a concentric eyewall, but the max winds were in the outer
eyewall, at a fairly large radius from the center of circulation.

For some pictures of the damage, I've included a couple of local news 
channel "email your pictures to us" sites:
http://www.wvec.com/blog/isabel/
http://wavy.com/Global/story.asp?S=1448226

Please visit my tropical Atlantic headquarters.