Hurricane Isaias made landfall near Southport, North Carolina, and left a trail of damage and broken boats at two marinas there. WRAL News reported “a giant pile of broken boats” at the marinas, and boat owners reported looking around and trying to find their vessels in the debris.
The storm skirted Florida; Sean Collins, the dockmaster at Vero Beach Municipal Marina, said one boat had a cleat pulled out there, and largely avoided Georgia, but it then slammed into the Southport area with 94-mph winds and a five-foot storm surge that simply stacked up water at Southport Marina and South Harbor Marina.
Docks broke loose, carrying boats with them, careening into other docks and other boats. At Southport Marina, Rick Donaldson stayed on his boat with his wife. “It was pretty bad,” he said. “The boats were breaking loose. Then all the docks, the transient dock, came around and hit us all.”
The hurricane then lost a bit of strength, continuing as a tropical storm, and swept up the coast with 73-mph winds along the Delaware and Maryland coasts, eventually moving a bit west and inland. But it still was strong enough to develop 15-foot seas on eastern Long Island Sound, and knocking out power to 1.2 million people in the New York tri-state area. The storm killed two people in North Carolina and demolished a trailer park there; falling trees also killed at least one person in Maryland and another in Queens, New York City. It also created tornadoes as it swept up the coast, including one in the Norwalk, Connecticut area.
Isaias is the ninth named storm in the Atlantic this year; this is the earliest in the year that we’ve ever had so many. Forecasters predicted an active hurricane season, due to warmer ocean waters and other conditions. Read more:
https://www.wral.com/isaias-leaves-giant-pile-of-broken-boats-at-southport-marinas/19218531/
