PETE SPANO AND OTHER NORTH CAROLINA RESIDENTS PREPARE FOR HURRICANE ISABEL, 2003-09-15 (photo)

Pete Spano loads a generator and empty gas containers that he just purchased at the Home Depot in Wilmington, North Carolina, into the back of his pick-up truck, September 15, 2003. U.S. East Coast residents on Monday prepared for one of the most powerful storms in recent memory as Hurricane Isabel whirled through the Atlantic toward possible landfall on Thursday in North Carolina. Isabel's top winds weakened slightly to 125 mph (205 kph) as it followed a path that could bring it ashore near Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, and north along the Chesapeake Bay near Washington D.C., through Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said. REUTERS/Ellen Ozier ELO/GN