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Isabel evacuees eye uncertain futureInsurance claims estimated to top $1 billion
(CNN) -- Hurricane Isabel struck with a vengeance Thursday, killing 31 people, and the East Coast residents displaced by the power outages, damage and flooding the storm left in its wake are ready to get home. But they worry what they'll find and how much it may cost them. Experts say to expect storm-related insurance claims of close to $1 billion. Hugh and Mary Lutton, who live in North Carolina's Outer Banks, have spent the past few nights in a hotel on the mainland with their 6-year-old son, Michael. "We've had reports from the area, and there seems to be little to no damage there, " Hugh said. Some people in Collington Harbor, where the Luttons live, still have power and phone service. They seem to be the lucky ones. Federal emergency officials said the storm's worst damage appeared to have been in the Outer Banks. An aerial survey estimated the damage in Dare County -- which includes Hatteras and Pea islands, separating the ocean from Pamlico Sound -- at $545 million, with $313 million of that on Hatteras, county officials said. Damage falls below that of similar-sized FloydThe death toll spanned seven East Coast states. At least 16 died in Virginia; seven in Maryland; three in North Carolina; two in New Jersey; and one each in Rhode Island, New York and Pennsylvania. The Insurance Information Institute predicted that insurers would face storm-related claims of close to $1 billion. The New York-based organization that analyzes and disseminates insurance industry information said the payout to Isabel's victims would not likely affect insurance rates. "Thankfully, Hurricane Isabel as a Category 2 storm did not approach the level of damage of Hurricane Floyd, which hit the same general area in 1999," said Bob Hartwig, the institute's chief economist. Floyd, twice a Category 4 on its way to the East Coast, came ashore in North Carolina as a Category 2 storm and racked up $4.5 billion in damages ($1.9 billion insured), making it the third-costliest hurricane in U.S. history. "While formidable, Isabel will fall generally within the range of catastrophic risk that insurers anticipated and built into insurance premiums for homeowners and businesses along the East Coast," Hartwig said. "I would not expect the storm by itself to have a significant effect on insurance rates." John Grondahl spent the night in his car waiting for the travel ban to the Outer Banks to lift but was armed and ready for what he might find at his home in South Nags Head. He had his insurance documents with him just in case. "I've got to see how much of this I'm going to need," he said, holding out a manila folder stuffed with papers. Grondahl's home is one house back from the Atlantic Ocean. "It may be in the ocean," he said Saturday. "I don't know." Isabel's power punchThe storm also had a substantial effect on electricity. Sunday, across a seven-state swath from North Carolina to New Jersey, 1.8 million people remained without power. On Kent Island, Maryland, a flotilla of boats sat on dry land Saturday where receding floodwaters left them. On the Outer Banks, freshly cut inlets sliced through the barrier islands and kept emergency workers from now-isolated Hatteras Island. By Saturday, pockets of electricity were popping up, but much of eastern North Carolina still lay dark. Despite the inconvenience, Carol Morring of Edenton, North Carolina, was optimistic: "I'm surviving," she said. Until recently, she was preparing food on an outdoor grill. But that had its limits. "No power. No ice. No food. It's spoiling like a fish," Morring said. "It's so hot, y'know." Morring eventually turned to peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, Vienna sausages and just about anything else she could find canned. 'Pumping out, cleaning up'Most agree that the damage could have been much worse. Isabel, twice a Category 5 storm during its slow journey across the Atlantic, beat up the Outer Banks with 100 mph winds as a Category 2 storm when it made landfall Thursday afternoon. But the wide storm thrashed the East Coast for hours with tropical storm-force winds, the storm surge pushing up to 9 feet of water into waterfront areas on the Atlantic and Chesapeake Bay. Baltimore, Maryland, Mayor Martin O'Malley said his city -- particularly the Inner Harbor area and the historic Fells Point neighborhood -- got the "kind of surge that the experts only said would come from a Category 4 or 5 hurricane, direct hit." "We had three days to prepare for this," he told CNN. "We prepared for the worst-case scenario, and that's what we got." But O'Malley, like mayors and county managers and other officials from North Carolina into New England, praised the spirit of the community. "We're all pumping out, cleaning up, digging out," he said. In Virginia, 1.2 million people were still without power Saturday morning, down from a record 1.8 million Friday. Dominion Virginia Power spokeswoman Deborah Johnson said Isabel had been the company's worst storm ever, topping Hurricane Fran, which knocked out power to 1.1 million people in 1996. Virginia Beach, Virginia, Mayor Meyera Oberndorf said, "We're looking at close to $11 million just to clean up the debris. ... I hate to think what would have happened if it had come through as a [Category] 5." States of disasterPresident Bush signed an emergency disaster declaration covering 26 counties in eastern North Carolina, 18 counties and 13 cities in Virginia, and the city of Baltimore and 23 counties in Maryland.(State by state roundup) Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, visiting a southeast Virginia town hit hard by the storm, said his department was ready. "The proof is in the recovery," he said. "The burden's on us now." Ridge said disaster field offices would be in place Monday and disaster-relief centers functioning Tuesday. "Our job right now is to get people on the ground for people to people contact, eyeball to eyeball," he said. "We've acted together to this point, and we've done pretty well. We'll get through this." CNN's Brian Cabell and Susan Candiotti in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina; Jeanne Meserve in Virginia Beach, Virginia; and Kathleen Koch in Baltimore, Maryland, contributed to this report.
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