Hurricane Isabel Storm Chase and Richmond VA Damage Survey

[0kwhoisnext]

I remember this Worst Hurricane Isabel in 2003 We didn't goto school since there was no water or electricity in area for two days. I loved it becuz I rain for whole week and black clouds it makes me happy, I always loved black clouds n rain. But i didn't realize how much damage there was. Now i still love Hurricanes but only in the oceans not on land.

[Luciferminusone]

Did the kids get a day off of school from the hurricane?

[neek951]

@Luciferminusone Many many days

[Luciferminusone]

Isabel is saying:  "I'll make sure that storm chaser NEVER gets home! MWA HA HA HA HA! :(

[hamlinfanVA]

A tree landed on my room, scary experience especially in the early evening when the strongest winds moved through.

[kiki4eva899]

who eva not from richmond we had 2 go through a lot during dat it took us 2 to 3 years to fix richmond up now we are ok

[CheatsX1]

Good thing I moved out of Fredericksburg and live in Phoenix Arizona now.

A hurricane is an experience I hope I never have to go through again.

[mikethebassguy]

@CheatsX1 lol you'll trade a rare hurricane for wildfires lol i wouldn't greetings from stafford btw

[kimbo0720]

@mikethebassguy haahaa, same here Stafford man

[mikethebassguy]

@kimbo0720 fun fun id laugh my ass off if i knew you, you didn't go to mountain view did you?

[kcbc2009]

i barely even remember Isabel -- I was only six but i do remember watchinq Tv and seeinq the Isabel Inlet between Hatteras and Frisco i wanted to see it but my parents said no :-(

[KoMan236]

I live in Virginia beach Virginia it hit there when i was in my house,

A Power Pole Fell In My Room

[Lilstats]

I remember this It was crazy

[mariner818]

My Mom lived in Hertford County, NC right where the eye went through before entering Virginia, and her town was nearly destroyed. There were large tracts of land where trees were sheared off by tornadoes, and the wind damage was so bad that there were no electric poles left standing for miles. They had no power for several weeks. I hope we never see anything like that again.

[xMeghan703x]

I barley remeber this I was 6 when we got hit with it..

[garywilliams1996]

that storm was shit me and my friends was playin football during dis storm wen i was 8

[chug26]

i was in this storm in DC, VA ,MD area it was pretty intense but i was 2 hours from the coast

[taylorsamarin98]

I remember this like it was yesterday. I lived near River Village in Fort Belvoir, VA. I was 6 and my brother was 12. We were playing basketball and then all of a sudden the police came down the road telling everyone to go inside to shelter. I went to my dads works in the bacement where his office was. We had to sleep on cots. [My dad is in the Army] The water was up to my hip! Now I live in Chester, VA and I am prepared for the worst...

[taylorsamarin98]

@TheVanessa1140 haha this happened wheni was 6 too. scary

[nycems303]

Poor planning, politics, a disgrace. Florida got hit with wilma, charlie and another, they are more prepared

[williluvmycello]

Three big oak trees blocked off our neighborhood so there was no way out. Trees were downed everywhere and I remember wondering when the power would come back on. I woke up in the middle of the night to find our 6 foot privacy fence missing from the yard and a tree through my neighbors house...very scary

[RussUWGB]

That was an amazing storm and it was only a cat 2. Thankfully no trees fell on our house but about four around it did. Power was out for 2 weeks and school was out for about for 3

[rfmsheart]

I remember i was in second grade when it hit i live in maryland and my power was out for a week and a tree fell on my house but i used to live in miami so i have been through worse

[MrLiljames009]

I live in Richmond and still remember everything. People running after ice trucks. It was crazy!

[dgagnon313]

Was living in dorm in Tenley Circle in DC when this hit. It was crazy, even that far inland. Two trees took out the transformers to our electricity. We were without power or hot water for 7 days.

[smurfnm156]

I live in Richmond and I remember going outside during the night just to see what was going on. I came out onto my deck just in time to see a tree crash onto my next door neighbor's car. Needless to say that got me right back inside. We found out later that a guy in a development about a mile down the road died when a tree fell on him. The power was out for eight days and to this day if you drive around Williamsburg the woods are full of uprooted trees. Scary stuff.

[INTOTHEWILD30]

oh my goodness...

i moved to virginia and didnt know there was hurricans

[halo3chick108]

God i remeber this storm the hurricane went right over us biggest fright of my life...Our house was completley destroyed

[MIKESOWELL]

dcenter000 at one point Isabel was a Category 5 Hurricane with 165 mph winds when it was still in the Atlantic Ocean. I live in Richmond and when the EYE passed near us, we were still getting 70-80 mph gusts, so she was hardly a "Depression". Get your facts straight.

[itsalleternal]

@MIKESOWELL - Isabel was a Category 1 hurricane over Richmond.

[MIKESOWELL]

@itsalleternal I know that....

[Franju187]

wanting new friends

looking for friends lO

[sprinklefriend]

i remember going outside to take pictures during the storm... remember a VERY long night...

but what i remember most was when it was a cat 5 hurricane, the news told us to write our SS# in permanent marker on our arm so they could IDENTIFY US!!!!!!!!!! i was a senior in high school and was relatively calm until that particular message was broadcast... !!!!!!

[dcenter000]

Isabel wasn't a category 5 when it hit Richmond, in fact, it was never a category 5 when it made landfall. It hit the coastal areas as a low grade hurricane, but when it got to Richmond it was merely a tropical storm/depression. It was no longer considered a hurricane. Please don't mislead people with incorrect facts about this storm. Katrina was only a cat. 3, and Ike hit as a cat. 2. Category 5 is a magnitude very rarely seen, and it certainly wasn't Isabel.

[sprinklefriend]

reread what i wrote.

where did i say it hit land as a cat5?

i said it was a cat5, not WHERE it was a cat5. and it hit dc as a cat2, which is where i live.

i remember the media's reaction to it being a cat 5 - didn't say it landed as one.

please don't mislead people by pretending to know what other people are saying.

[SteelerJeff2009]

It wasn't rated very high but since the ground was so saturated the trees fell like dominos and made it seem worse.

[ckself]

One thing to remember though is that the storm surge associated with Isabel was more typical of a cat 3 while Katrina's surge was more like a cat 5. It takes a while for the seas to calm after a hurricane weakens. Because of this lag and due to the fact that Katrina and Isabel were cat 5s not long before landfall the coastal damage due to surge was more extensive than what one would expect in the category the storms were at landfall.

I hate the saffir simpson scale. it's too exclusive to wind

[Jastitizer]

@williluvmycello I live right outside of Chester! Hahaha.

[taylorsamarin98]

@Jastitizer i live in chester! hahaha

[taylorsamarin98]

@williluvmycello yeah... i live in chester now, but at the time i lived in fort belvoir. it was horrible to go through at age 6 [or 7, idk]! I was scared to death...

[ruadhrose]

@williluvmycello Right there with ya! We live in Midlothian. I had a 13 month old at the time and that was the worst storm I'd lived through at that point in my life. Cured me of any notion I ever had of living at the beach full time...Not wanting to repeat that experience any time soon. We had NO power for 4 days, lost all our food and two major pine trees came down missed our house thank God. It wasn't fun...

[Luciferminusone]

@ruadhrose Sounds like fun except for having to deal with a baby.

[hamlinfanVA]

@williluvmycello Same, I'm from chesterfield too, I live near midlothian.

[MasterBlaster201]

I remember this! I got real pissed when the cable was out for 10 days... DX

[54spiritedwill54]

I was in college in Louisburg, NC and our campus did not have that much damage. Most of the dorms did not have any power though.

[webkinzhorsegirl101]

i was hit by it too. i was in kindergarden and i remeber we had windows in every room in our house so we had to sleep in our hallway. my room had 2 windows so i wasnt allowed to go into it until after the storm. we had to take these new born kittens we had outside and put them under our house so they wouldnt drownd to death or die

[geogray1]

You can't be 18 if you were in Kintergarden when you were hit by this. It happened 5 years ago.

[webkinzhorsegirl101]

im not 18 im 11 duh! i said i was 18 on you-tube so i could make an account,everyone does it

[v8subie]

just got owned by a 11 yr old kid.

[geogray1]

What you don't know doesn't hurt you...

[ejaey28]

I remember this storm..Me my brother my aunt n 2 cousins was outside playing, then we were trying to get a satellite dish that had came off of the church from across the street from under my mom's mustang..Our clothes were soaked when we went back in the house. Then we had a gas stove so my brother & his bestfriend made breakfast lol...ahh memories

[JasmineRodriguez9]

me to.my mom sent me and my brother to our daycare(we are 11 years old.we are twins)and she stayed in at home with our dog jazz.and it flooded the swamp where we live(the swamp is just a big rain puddle.over a little short bridge)but i hope we never get another hurricane or tornado in virginia.and where my family lives.

[c0rbs4L1FE]

my neighbor hood wuz in da eye of da hurricane too. me and my friends and some other people still went outside and my momma was cooking on the grill

[dancerchica132]

i was out of school for 2 weeks and didnt have power for the longest time. my neighborhood was in the eye of the hurrican

[Weatherfan068]

Hurricanes have been around since the beginning of time so it's a long-running curse...

[khalid101123]

This is the CURSE of GOD. Stop supporting the killings of INNOCENT MUSLIMS. Otherwise get ready for another one. Stop killing Muslims in IRAQ, AFGHANISTAN, KASHMIR, SOMALIA, and other parts of the world. Stop it or FACE IT.

[stowe2546]

ridiculous statement

[v8subie]

lol! GOD? North America has suffered through mother nature for countless ages, before you humanity founded the Islamic religion. STOP IT or FACE IT. NOOOOO. gtfo.

[jbird788879]

i was hit by that hurricane i live in chesapeake virginia

[panchita1144]

im form virginia but i live in Argentina it was crazyyyy... i live en Washington D.C

[lpycb42]

I was in Baltimore and god the creepiest part was watching the clouds move super fast and in a circular-like motion. By 4:00 pm driving back home with my cousin was probably one of thescariest things i've done. The car would be pushed by the wind over and over. Craaazy.

[ivyglennsocool]

my name is isabel i live iin virginia

[ivyglennsocool]

my name is isabel i live iin virginia

[mkl62]

In January, 2004, an ice storm hit at my home which is Saluda, SC. The power went out at 1:15 p.m. on Monday and came back on on Friday. SC also had a bad ice storm in February 1973. A local TV station did a recap of that storm 25 years later.

[1sexylala]

man i remember this storm it wuz hopeless no power for a week in brunswick county we had to call virginia dominion power cuz them bitches act like they forgot about us

[Toneman]

I'm from Prince George, our power was out for a week and a half. I'll tell you what sucks, the day after the storm when the sun is out, going out to the store to get some ice and batteries drained the hell out of me because of the bad vibes at ice machines and gas stations. Y'know what they say, survival often brings out the worst in some people...

[Toneman]

Hehe our only source of entertainment was listening to a WRVA radio show where people called in to either vent out about how much it sucks being with no power or give heads up on shelters

[CinderellaPointe]

Live in Richmond...oh man do I remember this...

[FredRVa]

Man, I was in this in Richmond....made a beer run in the middle of the night and watched the metal roof fly off the 7-11 gas pumps on the way across Broad Street.. That shit was hairy. No electricity for 12 days. Anyone remember the idiot lady in her corvette trapped on 95 downtown at the old toll booths? Ha.

[hatebreedfinger44]

i was in this storm

[coolcatevan9]

my starte had this

[sweetnesspops]

the advantage about this hurricane is that we had just got back into school for the year. from summer break.

[sweetnesspops]

i remeber this i stayed we didnt evacuate and where i live in virginia beach it wasnt really rain it was just the wind mostly.

[MiddleFingerSaysHi]

heh, someone has a video of Isabel huh? i remember this monster. only hit the east coast as a Category 1 and still managed to do a lot of damage. i live in Spotsylvania at the time - right across from the courthouse/fire dept/sheriff's dept so we got power back pretty fast. took a walk the next day and the damage it did was terrible. i think there were even reports of abandoned farm buildings collapsing!

[orangehouse]

tree fell on my car that day and three on my house.....had better days

[courthousedoc]

because my dad works for the power company i got power restored early

[blankenshipallen]

I lived on belmont st in the museum district of the fan. St. Benedictine church rite beside my house had a bunch of trees fall on it. on the backside there is a about six foot tall statue of the virgin mary, a pretty large tree fell rite on the statues head and the statue split the trunk of the tree. It was pretty cool!  LOTS OF TREES FELL for sure, it was really intense, our 100 year old 3rd floor apt. was seriously swaying back and forth, all in all it was an awesome night though!

[KuntryGuh07]

maine i remember dis shit...i actually went out runnin in the storm jus to see what it looked like..yeah trees were down everywhere and we were outta lights for a week i think...i woke up the next morning and saw then damaged isabel had caused....that bitch..but it was fun

[SwiftyClown]

I remember this one. I live in Colonial Heights. The huge oak tree in my front yard was swaying back and forth. The one in my backyard is still leaning into the tree in my neighbors yard.

[mysundaydress]

at the time, i lived waaaaay out in the country and we lost power for two weeks! it was one of the worst experiences i've ever had--i was miserable.

[wliiacpthair]

RVA is considered more the Mid-Atlantic as it is in between New York City and Miami. The Southeast would be South Carolina, Georgia and Florida, to name a few.

[VASINGER]

No actually, the Southeast is VA, NC, SC, GA, and FL. The Mid-Atlantic is MD, DE, NY, PA, and NJ. Virginia's climate is also much more like the Southeast- hot and humid for a very long time .

[monumentfloyd]

Richmond is actually in the southeast.Not Mid Atlantic.

[Pete803]

Richmond is mid atlantic, for sure

[VASINGER]

No its not.

[monumentfloyd]

I remember it like it was yesterday. In the Fan we were without power for 10 days, while people way out in the country got power back sooner than we did.

[zmshaw81]

I was in college in Louisburg, NC and our campus did not have that much damage. Most of the dorms did not have any power though.

[Wacoswim]

I heard Virginia Beach only lost power for a day. Mine was out for 10 days. It was pretty hot without AC. I loved Isabel. It was fun to watch.

[sweetnesspops]

no we lost ours for like a week then it came back in my coul de sac one side had power and the other didnt lol my side was the one that did and for breakfast we just cooked on the grill.

[Wacoswim]

Williamsburg (where I live) had tons of trees down. I missed school for 1 week. Acually, I think it was more, I'm not sure.

[SakuraU879]

i remember that. me and my grand perents were freaked but my cat slept through the whole thing!

[tyonts18]

i remember this very well i lived in richmond at the time and oh man did we get it bad trees and everything. By the time it was over the yard looked like a jungle, but richmond times dispatch still delivered us a paper in the morning haha, but our lights were out for a long time. Longer than any other county. Much to say we were grilling for weeks haha.

[wvbrian]

Wow....incredible footage! I was born and raised in Richmond and I remember Monument Ave and the Fan district very well. I moved away back in 1992. Good video!

[freyabrown]

This was terrible. I remember when it happened we were holed up in our house just riding it out. We lost power for a week, but we were lucky as some residents went without for a month or more.

[Syn619]

I live in Portsmouth. I remember this hurricane as I was in my home trying to ride it out as well as many other people in my neighborhood too. This was like the biggest and most severe storm I have ever been in. It sucks too cuz you have to clean up afterwards. There were lots of broken branches in our yard, but many huge trees have fallen down everywhere else on our street near people's houses. Good thing that it didn't do too much damage. Good footage! :)

[holdontofreedom]

I live in Mechanicsville, VA, a suburb of Richmond. Hurricane Isabel was a long and terrible storm, the winds and drenching squalls pounded us for 12 hours as I recall. Two or three days after Isabel, a tornado blew through Henrico and eastern Hanover counties. Trees continued to topple for at least another week because the ground was saturated.

[jeffyane]

i live in richmond, and drove around in that storm throughout the night. It was fun and exciting and a site to experience, cause I didn't get killed.

[aprilblossom08]

yea memphis had a blackout for like 2wks but mines was only out for a couple of days we were one of the lucky ones here but we never have really severe weather, thank god...snow storms, hurricanes, tornados, nothing since i've been born

[mwgmillard]

great footage...i wasn't living in richmond yet thank god..

[plostyle76]

I drove thru that Hurricane. I was on my way to Atlanta GA from Maryland. It was really bad.

[guitarest452452]

wow dude i'm glad i don't have hurricanes

[deliveryboy2007]

All I can say is...WOW. I remember that the lights were out along Monument for days and I recall see many of the crushed vehicles. "Averitt Express driver wake up" is a quote for the ages.