September 18, 2003	Thursday	Rajab 20, 1424

KITTY HAWK (USA), Sept 17: Three US states declared emergencies and thousands of coastal residents piled into ferries, cars and trucks on Wednesday to flee the expected path of Hurricane Isabel as it closes in for a hit.

In Kitty Hawk, home to aviation pioneers the Wright brothers, most residents had finished boarding up and were heading out of town early on Wednesday. Isabel was churning in toward a densely populated region in which more than 50 million people live, and North Carolina, Maryland and Virginia declared emergencies and put their National Guard units on watch.

“All preparations to protect life and property should be rushed to completion in the hurricane warning area,” the Miami-based National Hurricane Center warned.

“Most people are being smart, they’re making plans to evacuate, getting their last belongings,” firefighter Cole Yeatts said.

In this area of low-lying barrier islands, mainstay tourism has ground to a halt until Isabel has passed. Graffiti scribbled on plywood boards left behind read “Take it easy, Izzy” and “Blow, Izzy, blow.”

Fred Gentry was scrambling to try to protect his home, just 23 meters from the ocean and the only one not built on stilts in his area, piecing together a wall of wood more than a meter high.

“I got flooded during (Hurricane) Floyd — seven inches of water in the house. I was not as well prepared. With the wall and all, I hope this time around” luck will be with me, he said. “I’m not a hero, I’m not stupid. I’m out here to protect my property, but I don’t plan to stick around too long.”

At 1500 GMT, a hurricane warning was in effect from Cape Fear, North Carolina to Chincoteague, Virginia, the NHC said. A hurricane warning means hurricane conditions are expected within the warning area generally within 24 hours.

The storm’s center was about 644 kilometres south-southeast of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, moving toward the north-northwest near 14.5 kilometres per hour.

“The center of Isabel is expected to make landfall in eastern North Carolina during the day Thursday,” the center forecast. —AFP