Storm Surge

MOTHER AND SON: To earn extra school credit, Josh Feldman, with his mom Elise, braved the high waters of the Potomac
KARL MERTON FERRON/THE BALTIMORE SUN/AP

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Among the persistent mysteries is why hurricanes like Isabel start out big and then diminish while others, like Andrew in 1992 and Camille in 1969, get stronger just before they make landfall. Only three Category 5 storms have hit the U.S. over the past 100 years — Andrew, Camille and the Labor Day storm of 1935--and Isabel was not one of them. But a fast-fading Category 2 hurricane — which is what Isabel was as it slammed into North Carolina and Virginia — is still a formidable force.

Besides, no one is counting the 2003 hurricane season out just yet. For one consequence of increased activity in the Atlantic is an extension of prime conditions for hurricanes well into the month of October. Like a scorpion, this hurricane season may turn out to have a stinging tail.

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Quotes of the Day »

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CHRISTINE LINDBERG of Oxford's U.S. dictionary program, on why unfriend was chosen as Word of the Year by the New Oxford American Dictionary; it refers to removing someone on a social-networking site like Facebook

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