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Residents revel in storm
By Bryan Long and Joseph Van Harken
VIRGINIA BEACH, Virginia (CNN) -- As Hurricane Isabel swept over Virginia Beach, dozens of residents headed to the ocean-side Dairy Queen to catch a glimpse of what was predicted to be devastating. "I had no idea there would be so many people out here," said lifetime Virginia Beach resident Karen Cinq-Mars. The crowd, which shrank and swelled all afternoon, included families with camcorders, middle-aged thrill seekers and young men near a waterlogged boardwalk leaning toward the wind tempting it to blow them over. Ann Perkins, 50, and her friend, fellow Virginia Beach resident Mary Froehler, 50, stood in the open, fighting the whips of wind and boasting of their bravery. "This is the opportunity of a lifetime," Perkins said. "It's not so bad. It's nice to be out here with all the 18 and 20-year-olds." Cinq-Mars ducked behind a wall to shield herself from gusts as she tried to capture steady shots of giant waves, horizontal rain and storefront damage. By Thursday evening, the Dolphin Inn, a hotel next to the Dairy Queen, stood wounded, missing half a stucco wall. Shop owners who didn't board the windows of their Atlantic Boulevard oceanfront businesses will return to shattered glass and windswept merchandise. Pink and yellow roofing insulation rolled through already littered streets, darkened traffic lights dangled and shattered pieces of Plexiglas store signs scattered. Uprooted and snapped trees fell haphazardly creating a chaotic pattern while parking lots filled with yellow frothy sea foam. Despite the destruction, area residents took the storm in stride. "If the storm was 90 miles per hour or more, I wouldn't be here, but this really isn't bad," Perkins said. Froehler, on the other hand, said she felt a certain obligation. "We live at the beach," she said. "We've got to be out here."
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