(Atlantic Beach-AP) Sept. 18, 2003 - Hurricane Isabel cqme ashore at 1:00pm near Drum Inlet between Cape Lookout and Ocracoke Island, North Carolina, bringing stinging rain, pounding waves and knocking out power to hundreds of thousands of customers.

At 5:00pm Isabel was on the mainland 40 miles east-southeast of Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina. The storm is moving northwest at 20 miles an hour. Highest sustained winds are 90 miles an hour.

Most of the Outer Banks were nearly empty as rain flew at a 45-degree angle, driven by wind that turned sand grains into darts and howled like jet engines. A storm surge of five-to-six feet has been reported at Cape Hatteras, North Carolina.

At Nags Head 15-foot waves were reported and seas up to 33 feet were reported off the Virginia coast. The storm is moving at 18 miles per hour, and forecasters think that will minimize the flooding threat because Isabel isn't lingering over one location. Governor Easley asked for a federal disaster declaration to make the state eligible for damage assistance.

The forecast path of the center of Isabel will cross into Virginia near Roanoke Rapids by sunset, then head to the west of Washington, DC, before moving into western Maryland and into Pennsylvania. Northwest winds over the area will gradually diminish, becoming light after midnight. Thursday night they say it should move .

The NHC warns of storm surge flooding of 5-8 feet above normal tide levels, along with extremely large and dangerous battering waves near and to the north of where the storm's center crosses the coast. A storm surge of 5-6 feet was reported at Cape Hatteras. There is a threat of isolated tornadoes over eastern North Carolina, southeastern Virginia and southeastern Maryland.

Forecasters are worried that, as with Hurricane Floyd in 1999, the worst damage could come from flooding far inland. Even people in rain-soaked Pennsylvania are concerned about more flooding.

Updated 5:21pm by Chris Rees