• Hurricane Isabel intensified into a rare and dreaded Category 5 storm Thursday night, packing sustained winds of 160 mph.

• To be classified a Category 5, the highest designation, a hurricane must have winds of at least 156 mph.

• Thursday night, Isabel was located about 500 miles east-northeast of the northern Leeward Islands and moving west at 9 mph.

• Long-range forecasts say the storm could take a path toward north Florida or the mid-Atlantic states.