Impact
| Region | Deaths | Damage (2003 USD) |
|
|---|---|---|---|
| Direct | Indirect | ||
| Florida | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| North Carolina | 1 | 2 | $450 million |
| Virginia | 10 | 22 | $1.85 billion |
| West Virginia | 0 | 0 | $20 million |
| Washington, D.C. | 0 | 1 | $125 million |
| Maryland | 1 | 6 | $820 million |
| Delaware | 0 | 0 | $40 million |
| Pennsylvania | 0 | 2 | $160 million |
| New Jersey | 1 | 1 | $50 million |
| New York | 1 | 0 | $90 million |
| Rhode Island | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Ontario | 0 | 1 | ? |
| Total | 16 | 35 | $3.6 billion |
Strong winds from Isabel extended from North Carolina to New England and westward to West Virginia. The winds, combined with previous rainfall which moistened the soil, downed many trees and power lines across its path, leaving about 6 million electricity customers without power at some point. Parts of coastal Virginia, especially in the Hampton Roads and Northeast North Carolina areas, were without electricity for almost a month. Coastal areas suffered from waves and its powerful storm surge, with areas in eastern North Carolina and southeast Virginia reporting severe damage from both winds and the storm surge. Throughout its path, Isabel resulted in $3.6 billion in damage (2003 USD, $4.55 billion 2012 USD) and 51 deaths, of which 16 were directly related to the storm's effects.
The governors of Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Maryland, New Jersey, and Delaware declared states of emergency. Isabel was the first major hurricane to threaten the Mid-Atlantic States and the Upper South since Hurricane Floyd in September 1999. Isabel's greatest effect was due to flood damage, the worst in some areas of Virginia since 1972's Hurricane Agnes. More than 60 million people were affected to some degree—a similar number to Floyd but more than any other hurricane in recent memory.
Read more about this topic: Hurricane Isabel
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“The question confronting the Church today is not any longer whether the man in the street can grasp a religious message, but how to employ the communications media so as to let him have the full impact of the Gospel message.”
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“Television does not dominate or insist, as movies do. It is not sensational, but taken for granted. Insistence would destroy it, for its message is so dire that it relies on being the background drone that counters silence. For most of us, it is something turned on and off as we would the light. It is a service, not a luxury or a thing of choice.”
—David Thomson, U.S. film historian. America in the Dark: The Impact of Hollywood Films on American Culture, ch. 8, William Morrow (1977)