Make Way For Isabel

Millions from North Carolina on up through New England have made emergency preparations for Hurricane Isabel, which edged toward landfall Wednesday.

"Preparations should be rushed to completion," said the National Hurricane Center in its 8 a.m. EDT advisory.

At that hour, the center of the storm was located about 425 miles south-southeast of Cape Hatteras, N.C., and moving north-northeast at about 9 miles an hour.

It's expected to pick up some speed during the next 24 hours, although wind speed should remain around 110 miles per hour with some higher gusts.

Cars, recreational vehicles and SUVs streamed inland from North Carolina's Outer Banks on Tuesday as more than 100,000 people were urged to get out the way of Isabel, the most powerful storm in four years to menace the mid-Atlantic coast.

"When they tell me to leave, I'm leaving!" evacuee Lynn Brackenridge told CBS News Correspondent Lee Cowan.

"The center of Isabel should be nearing the North Carolina coastline late Thursday morning or early Thursday afternoon," says CBS News Meteorologist George Cullen.

"However hurricane force winds will be felt by daybreak on Thursday along the North Carolina shoreline, along with ten to fifteen foot ocean swells. The eye of the storm should be making landfall by midday Thursday as a category 2 or 3 hurricane, with winds gusting to near 125 miles per hour."

Isabel is huge, with hurricane force winds extending 145 miles from the eye of the storm, and tropical storm force winds extending nearly 250 miles from the center of the storm.

Isabel's winds weakened Tuesday to around 105 mph from a peak of 160 mph over the weekend, then picked up slightly to 110 mph. Forecasters said the hurricane could strengthen when it crosses the warm waters of the Gulf Stream on a projected course that could take it straight into North Carolina.

Cullen notes that "no matter where the eye makes landfall, the effects will be far-reaching, as very heavy rain, extremely high winds and even a few tornadoes are likely across eastern North Carolina and Virginia, along with rough seas and tropical storm force winds as far north as Maryland, Delaware and New Jersey."

"Isabel will likely move across the Shenadoah Valley of northern Virginia Thursday night into early Friday morning, as a tropical storm dropping flooding rains over an already saturated region," says Cullen. "By Friday, the center of the storm should move across extreme western Maryland and into western Pennsylvania later on Friday, dumping more heavy rain along with damaging winds across the region."

There's potential good news for New Englanders: The current course of Isabel suggests that the impact in New England will not be severe - but vigilance is still advised.

Cowan reports Isabel's pattern so far is looking suspiciously similar to that of Floyd, a Category 2 hurricane that hit North Carolina on Sept. 16, 1999. At $4.5 billion dollars, it was the third costliest hurricane in U.S. history.

"(In) Hurricane Floyd we had 56 people die in the U.S., most of them from the inland flooding, so we don't want to lose our focus on that," said Max Mayfield with the National Hurricane Center.

Holly Barbour, a vacationer from Wheeling, W. Va., said she and her family planned to head south to Myrtle Beach, S.C.

"Yesterday was so nice, we couldn't believe that a storm was coming," she said. "A lot of people were saying they were heading out when they told us to evacuate. So we're going to do the same."

Coastal residents from South Carolina to New Jersey boarded up homes and businesses and stocked up on batteries, water and other supplies. North Carolina Gov. Mike Easley declared a state of emergency, allowing him to use the National Guard and also seek federal disaster relief after the storm passes.

Easley urged residents to evacuate low-lying coastal areas.

"Now is the time to prepare," he said. "The course and intensity of this storm may change very quickly."

Thousands of tourists and others abandoned parts of North Carolina's Outer Banks as rough surf pounded the thin, 120-mile-long chain of islands. But some weather-tested residents treated the evacuation orders as just a suggestion.

"It's easier to stay on the island," Margie Brecker said as she and her husband boarded up their Christmas shop in Rodanthe and made plans to hunker down. "That way, we are right here when it's time to clean up, and we're able to help others."

There have been some problems as folks get ready for Isabel.

In Simpson, N.C., a man preparing for Isabel accidentally burned his home down Monday when a generator he was testing caught fire.

A less serious matter is being decided in Atlantic City, N.J., where Miss America Pageant officials are watching and waiting to see if they will have to postpone either the Boardwalk parade on Friday or the pageant itself, on Saturday.

In Norfolk, Virginia, the U.S. Navy sent 40 ships out into the sea to ride out the storm.

"It's an easy decision any prudent mariner has to make," Admiral Robert Natter told CBS News Correspondent Cynthia Bowers.

Local officials in Virginia Beach have spent $125 million on a hurricane preparation package that included building a sea wall and widening beaches from 50 feet to 300 to protect from storm surge. Now they are waiting to see how the project holds up.

One of Virginia Beach's best-known citizens, televangelist Pat Robertson, isn't waiting. He went about his usual hurricane routine: praying that the hurricane would turn away from land. On his Christian Broadcasting Network program "The 700 Club," Robertson asked God to put a "wall of protection" around Virginia Beach and the East Coast.

"In the name of Jesus," said Robertson, "we reach out our hand in faith and we command that storm to cease its forward motion to the north and to turn and to go out into the sea."