Thousands urged to evacuate as Hurricane Isabel nears East Coast

MANTEO, N.C. -- Traffic surged off the Outer Banks island chain Tuesday as nearly 100,000 people were urged to evacuate the North Carolina coast before the arrival of Hurricane Isabel, which had weakened but remained a dangerous storm on a track toward land.\nThe National Hurricane Center posted a hurricane watch from Little River Inlet, S.C., to Chincoteague, Va., including Pamlico and Albemarle Sounds and a large part of Chesapeake Bay.\nOn tiny, low-lying Tangier Island in Chesapeake Bay, Wallace Pruitt stored outdoor furniture at the bed-and-breakfast inn he runs with his wife, Shirley.\n"I don't usually get too excited about something like this, but this one has so much force I've been preparing for two days," said Pruitt, 63.\nForecasters said Isabel appeared to be on a course to hit Thursday on the North Carolina coast and move northward through eastern Virginia. Large swells and dangerous surf were already being felt along the coast.\nThe storm's maximum sustained wind had decreased to about 105 mph. More weakening was possible but the storm could strengthen again before landfall, the National Hurricane Center said in Miami.The latest evacuation order was for the low-lying Outer Banks islands, which includes an estimated 75,000 people from Hatteras to Duck, N.C., 30,000 of them permanent residents, in Dare County. An additional 15,000 to 20,000 were urged to leave the beaches of Currituck County that extend from Duck to the Virginia state line. A day earlier, hundreds of residents of vulnerable Ocracoke and Bald Head islands were ordered to evacuate.