Shops, beaches closed as Isaias nears Carolinas

NORTH MYRTLE BEACH, South Carolina — Coastal shops and restaurants closed early, power began to flicker at oceanfront hotels and even the most adventurous of beachgoers abandoned the sand Monday night as newly restrengthened Hurricane Isaias sped toward the Carolinas.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center warned oceanside home dwellers to brace for storm surge up to 1.5 metres and up to 20 centimetres of rain in spots, as Isaias moved up the coast. The Carolinas weren’t the only states at risk.

“All those rains could produce flash flooding across portions of the eastern Carolinas and midAtlantic, and even in the northeast U.S.,” said Daniel Brown, senior hurricane specialist at the U.S. National Hurricane Center. A tropical storm warning extended all the way up to Maine, where flash flooding was possible in some areas on Wednesday.

The centre warned of possible tornadoes in North Carolina on Monday night and early today, and from eastern Virginia to southern New England later today.

Isaias (pronounced ees-ah-EEahs) was upgraded again from a tropical storm to a Category 1 hurricane at 8 p.m. EDT. The storm had maximum sustained winds of 137 k/ph and was centred about 100 kilometres south of Myrtle Beach. It was moving northeast at 26 k/ph.

Isaias killed two people in the Caribbean and roughed up the Bahamas but remained at sea as it brushed past Florida over the weekend, providing some welcome relief to emergency managers who had to accommodate mask-wearing evacuees in storm shelters. The centre of Isaias remained well offshore as it passed Georgia’s coast on Monday.