Death toll from Isaias rises along East Coast
Electricity outages persist for millions
WINDSOR, N.C. – At least nine people, including a 5-year-old autistic girl, were killed as Tropical Storm Isaias battered the East Coast with rain and fierce winds after making landfall as a hurricane in North Carolina. Millions of people were without power.
The sound of generators and chainsaws punctuated the sunrise in New Jersey, where more than 1 million homes and businesses were without electricity. NJ Transit train service remained suspended while crews cleared about 150 trees and repair signals and overhead wires.
Regional rail service was suspended in Philadelphia after Isaias raised the Schuylkill River and sent an unsecured construction barge into a bridge. Inspectors were checking for damage. Interstate 676, which crosses the bridge, was also closed in both directions.
Patrick Foye, chairman of New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority, said more than 2,000 trees fell across the system’s train and bus network.
“This storm caused severe damage,” Foye said Wednesday. “Not since Superstorm Sandy has our system experienced this type of wind.”
Two people died when Isaias spun off a tornado that struck a North Carolina mobile home park. Another person died in Pennsylvania when their vehicle was overtaken by water and swept downstream. The 5-year-old girl had gone missing from her Philadelphia-area home during the height of the storm Tuesday and was found dead Wednesday. Authorities said they think she was swept away by floodwaters in the creek behind her house.
Three others were killed by trees toppled by the storm in Maryland, Connecticut and New York City, and a seventh person died in Delaware after being hit by a tree branch, authorities said. A woman was found dead inside a New Hampshire house Tuesday evening.
Isaias sustained top winds of up to 65 mph more than 18 hours after coming ashore, but it was down to 40 mph max winds as of early Wednesday, according to the National Hurricane Center.
Isaias toggled between hurricane and tropical storm strength as it churned toward the East Coast. Fueled by warm ocean waters, the storm got a late burst of strength as a rejuvenated hurricane with top sustained winds of 85 mph before coming ashore late Monday near Ocean Isle Beach, North Carolina. Its tropical storm status was sustained, but weakened, as it headed north into Canada on Tuesday night.
Before making landfall late Monday, Isaias killed two people in the Caribbean and battered the Bahamas before brushing past Florida.
Some of the worst damage seemed to be east and north of where the hurricane’s eye pased over land in North Carolina.
“Fortunately, this storm was fastmoving and has already left our state,” Gov. Roy Cooper said Tuesday.