Tropical Storm Isaias Spawns Tornadoes, Causes Floods, Fires, and Outages Along East Coast

Elizabeth Whittemore (from left), along with her father James, sister Jordan and mother Susan, stand at the end of the South Jetty in Fort Pierce on Sunday, Aug. 2, 2020, watch the waves crash over the rocks brought by the high winds of Tropical Storm Isaias churning off the coast. (Patrick Dove/TCPalm.com via AP)

Tropical Storm Isaias spawned tornadoes and dumped rain along the U.S. East Coast on Tuesday after making landfall as a hurricane in North Carolina, where it smashed boats together and caused floods and fires that displaced dozens of people. At least two people were killed when one of its twisters hit a mobile home park.

About 12 hours after coming ashore, Isaias was still sustaining near-hurricane-strength top winds of 70 mph late Tuesday morning, and its forward march accelerated to 35 mph. “Potentially life-threatening urban flooding is possible in D.C., Baltimore and elsewhere along and just west of the I-95 corridor today,” the National Hurricane Center warned.

Forecasters also issued clear warnings earlier, as Isaias approached land, urging people to heed the danger of “life-threatening storm surge inundation” along the coasts of North and South Carolina.