Virginia, Maryland natives anxious about Isabel's outcome

Hurricane Isabel's threat might be more than 750 miles from IU, but the effects will reach close to home today.\nJunior Lauren Brand is from Virginia Beach, Va. -- one of the cities in the direct path of the hurricane along the eastern seaboard.\n"My whole family is there," Brand said. "My grandparents literally live right on the ocean, and my aunts and uncles are in Virginia Beach -- literally, everyone is there."\nTo the almost 40 miles of coast lining Virginia Beach, a burg whose frequent brushes with hurricanes and tropical storms have led to a certain indifference among locals, the storm's diminishing fury could lead to potentially disastrous results. \nBrand's parents recently moved to a new house directly on the waterfront. Now, mere months after unpacking, the Brands are again gathering their valuables and sentimental possessions -- only this time, they're jamming into inland hotel rooms and suites. Windows are boarded in the Brand home as oil lamps and candles line coffee tables and mantlepieces. Brand's mother has stocked up on flashlights and batteries for her husband and daughter.\nThankfully, Brand says, the offices for her family's furniture business aren't situated on the beachfront.\n"It's a brand new house, so we're hoping everything will stay put," Brand said. "I'm okay; I just don't want them to know I'm nervous, because I'm not there and it's difficult."\nBrand said she expects her entire extended family to stay in hotels farther inland in Virginia until the storm blows through. \n"My mom went down to the beach and said it was really bizarre and eerie," Brand said. "The surf was incredibly high and the winds were just out of control."\nBrand also said her sister's school has been canceled, and her father's furniture stores have closed their doors. \nDespite the threat of Isabel, Brand says she's trying to stay positive.\n"I think they're going to be fine," she said. "I have all of their numbers for their hotel rooms, and hopefully their cell phones will be working. We're trying to call every couple of hours, so I'm pretty optimistic." \nVirginia Beach hasn't suffered the effects of a hurricane on par with Isabel since 1944, according to the National Weather Service. However, hurricanes do approach the resort city at proximities close enough to produce gale-force winds three times every 20 years. \nStill, "it's been a really long time since we had to worry about something," Brand said. "It's usually North Carolina or something, so now we're kind of nervous."\nThe threat is unquestionably greatest at North Carolina's Outer Banks, where Isabel was expected to hit early this morning, according to the NWS Web site. Peaking earlier this week at Category 5 status with winds reaching upwards of 150 miles per hour, Isabel has since downgraded to a Category 2 system. Meteorologists with the NWS expect the storm to achieve landfall near Wilmington in southern North Carolina; from there, Isabel will likely cross middle Virginia, including the greater Washington, D.C. area, and continue into western Pennsylvania.\nSenior Aaron Aft hails from Springfield, Va., a Washington, D.C. suburb, and he said the situation has escalated in the D.C. metro area as Isabel approaches. Rising flood waters and oversaturated soil have forced the dumping of excess water from Baltimore reservoirs into the nearby Hudson River.\n"There is definitely significant concern," Aft said. "It's more on the Maryland side, but there's a concern for the flood waters closer to the Baltimore area."\nMetrorail and Metrobus services in D.C. will shut down at 11 a.m. today, and Washington-area schools and universities have announced closings for Thursday and Friday.\nSenior Phil Mervis, also from the D.C. area, said his family "isn't freaking out" -- yet. \n"We're just going to get wind and rain gusts," Mervis said. "We're not really worried."\n-- Contact staff writer Holly Johnson at hljohnso@indiana.edu.