Hurricane Isabel- Nags Head/Kill Devil Hills, NC September 18th, 2003

I remember this chase really well! I left NYC on the morning of September 16th and drove straight down to Nags Head, NC where I teamed up with fellow chaser Jim Edds. Dave Lewison and I did know of each other at this time, but it was before we actually started chasing together, so I went at this one alone. After an 11 hour drive, I finally made it to Nags Head where I met up with Jim, and we promptly got ourselves one of the last rooms available in Nags Head! We were set! Or at least we thought we were, lol.

The following morning (the 17th) we awoke to the news that our hotel would be closing down for the storm, and we would have to leave. Talk about waiting until the last minute. Isabel was less than 24 hours away, and now we had to scramble to find another place to stay, along with the other 200 or so people. Needless to say, we had to jump on this fast or we'd get shut out!

As luck would have it, Jim called up the Holiday Inn just down the road in Kill Devil Hills, and they assured us that they WOULD be staying open for the storm. Jim grabbed the last two rooms available. One of the rooms was for us, and the other room was for Geoff Mackley and his cameraman, Geoff is a chaser/adventurer from New Zealand. We packed up all our stuff and headed down the road to the new hotel. At this point, the weather started to go downhill in our area but it wasn't bad enough yet that we weren't able to travel around without too much trouble. So, we decided after shooting some pre storm environment video that it was time to grab what could be our last decent meal for a while. We stopped at one of the only restaurants still open in Kill Devil Hills, and it seemed like everyone and their mothers were there! lol. CNN, TWC, and just about every local news station within a 300 mile radius had converged at our location. But, we chowed down big time and shared stories with the other chasers that were there, a fun time was had that night.

The following morning, Isabel was just off shore, and Jim decided to head out with Geoff and get some storm surge shots, while I decided to play it safe and stay around the hotel. At the time, I was chasing in a 96' Chevy Cavalier, lol.....yeah, I know....but this was before I purchaed my Xterra later that year. Turns out that Jim and Geoff did run into some trouble on some busted up roads that were inundated with surge, Jim didn't get stuck, but Geoff did and almost got swept away! Since Isabel was a Cat 2 hurricane, I felt relatively safe walking around and getting my shots. And throughout the rest of the morning and into the afternoon, that's exactly what I did. I did take some breaks and on occasion headed back to the hotel room to dry out, but for the most part I stayed out in the storm the entire time.

After the storm was over, we all took super cold showers (which sucked!) and ate our rations, which thankfully we brought with us. On full stomachs we all parted ways the following morning, and after negotiating several flooded roads, and closed bridges, I finally made it back to the 13, and literally took that all the way back to New Jersey! I made it home to New York City in just under 8 hours.

Thanks for watching! And please rate, comment & subscribe if you have enjoyed the video.

Scott

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©Scott McPartland

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[UnlimitedWonder]

here in virginia, hurricanes are pretty rare.

[tornadovideostock]

@UnlimitedWonder The Carolina's usually get it, especially NC since storms riding up the east coast hit NC first. That state sticks out and does a pretty decent job of protecting VA from a direct strike. However, under the right circumstances VA can get a direct strike. Thanks for watching

[BigJebby1]

my house was flooded by this storm

[tornadovideostock]

@BigJebby1 There certainly was a lot of flooding associated with Isabel. Keep an eye out this week with Irene approaching!

[BigJebby1]

@tornadovideostock The water level with Irene was about 6 inches less than Isabel and it missed my house this time. But others in my community were not so lucky.

[tornadovideostock]

@BigJebby1 Glad to hear it missed your house this time around, but sorry to hear about other parts of your area. Same thing up here. So many areas in NY/NJ/CT and VT that are dealing with horrendous flooding!

[tornadovideostock]

@winterlove62 I'm sure everything will be fine! The Carolina outer banks haven't been hit since 2003. They will get hit again one day, but hopefully not during your vacation lol. Thanks for watching!

[winterlove62]

Shucks

im going there for vacation in nags head

with family and friends (11 people)

[tornadovideostock]

@clemejul 5 eh? lol....yep, now I feel old! I was like 30 when I filmed this storm, hehe. Thanks for watching!

[clemejul]

I remember it like yesterday. family on an oceanfront house omg kicked out so scary tho I was like 5