Hurricane Isabel has come ashore in North Carolina with furious winds and torrential rains that forced evacuations throughout the US mid-Atlantic region, cancelled nearly 1,300 flights and shut down the federal government in Washington.
Nearly a quarter of a million people were ordered to leave their homes and about 800,000 utility customers lost electricity as Isabel downed trees and broke power lines along the North Carolina and Virginia coast.
Officials expected the storm to wreak more havoc to the power grid as it moved inland.
Isabel pounded the Outer Banks islands of North Carolina with wind gusts up to 105 mph. The eye of the storm came ashore at Ocracoke Island at midday.
Washington D.C., the nation's capital braced for Isabel's fury.
"It is big, it is ugly. It is a bad storm and it is heading our way," Washington Mayor Anthony Williams said.
Airlines cancelled nearly 1,300 flights at 19 airports, leaving skies along the East Coast nearly clear of commercial air traffic and disrupting flight schedules nationwide.
Isabel was a strong Category 2 storm on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale measuring hurricanes' destructive power. Category 2 storms can badly damage mobile homes and roofs, rip down power lines and cell phone towers and block roads with felled trees and utility poles.
Forecasters said the storm would weaken as it moved north into Virginia and sideswiped Washington, but would be strongenough to rattle high-rise buildings and could spawn tornadoes.
But the biggest threat was from flooding. Up to 10 inches of rain was expected in a region saturated from months of above-normal rainfall which has loosened tree roots.
States of emergency were declared in North Carolina, Virginia, Washington D.C., Maryland, West Virginia, Delaware, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Throughout the region, shelters opened, schools closed and residents braced.
More than 240,000 people were told to evacuate low-lying areas of North Carolina and Virginia or risk getting trapped by flooding from storm surges of up to 11 feet.
In Washington, the federal government was closed except for emergency personnel and worried residents sandbagged homes to keep water out. Most of Congress left town and the Defense Department, busy with the Iraq war, relied on emergency staff.
The capital's Metro subway and bus system closed and Amtrak halted virtually all train service south of Washington.
President George W. Bush left the capital by helicopter for his Camp David retreat yesterday to escape the storm.