READY OR NOT

COVER STORY: Even as Isabel lost some of her fearful momentum before slamming into the East Coast, disaster-relief teams stepped up their intensity in the days before landfall. A look at how one of the largest church-based relief efforts prepared to mobilize help where it was needed most | Bob Jones

It started out nearly two weeks ago as barely a blip on most Americans' radar screen: a tropical depression off the coast of Africa that strengthened, earned the name Isabel, then strengthened still more into one of the most powerful hurricanes on record.

Although she slipped to a high-level Category 2 storm by the time she screamed ashore south of Cape Hatteras, N.C., on Thursday, Isabel's swirling fury still stretched some 400 miles in diameter, delivering damaging winds and threatening severe flooding along a huge swath from South Carolina to New York.

Even a weakened Isabel packed the potential for widespread damage and destruction. Authorities in North Carolina and Virginia ordered the evacuation of nearly 200,000 people from low-lying coastal regions. In Virginia's populous Tidewater area, one police chief warned those who ignored the evacuation order to write their names in permanent marker on their forearms to help with identification if they were injured or killed.