By Andrea Genovese Soares (September 24, 2003)

Forcing the school system to use two of its four inclement weather days earlier than ever, hurricane Isabel stormed through Falls Church last Thursday and brought with it loss of power, boiling water advisories, flooding, destruction of trees and homes, and, later, ironically, a beautiful weekend. 
 

Even when students returned to school on Monday, there were still many without power. English Teachers started getting handwritten papers as students, whose homes were without power, met their homework assignments without their computers.  As weather forecasters were on the news advising people of the incoming storm, many prepared for the storm, like GM students who participated in their first "tornado watch" safety drill of the year.  President Bush declared a major disaster area for Virginia, where 1.6 million customers were without power. Nine-weather related deaths were reported. Six were the result of traffic accidents, two were by falling trees and the last a drowning while canoeing.

More evidence of Isabel's power can be seen on the bike trail.  The storm snapped this telephone pole in two.  (Photo by Steven Twentyman)

Though the storm did not lack in warning through the media, many GM students were skeptical of its eventual power, recalling a hurricane closing four years ago, for what turned out to be a gentle rain and then a beautiful day. 

Besides school and activity cancellations and rescheduling, the hurricane brought about only a few changes and school superintendent Mary Ellen Shaw reported that all the city’s school buildings survived intact.. As school was cancelled both Thursday and Friday, all related activities were cancelled, bringing about a 4-day weekend. The main change was the "back-to-school night," which was moved to Wednesday, September 24. 
 

Student Roth West shared his experience. "Well, the thing about the [power company] is that if you call them on a day, say Sunday, they tell you your power will be on by 11 at night. Then, you go to bed thinking, ‘Good, power is going to be back before I wake up!’ Then, the next day, your power is not on. Then you call them, and they say your power will be on at 11, and so on. And here’s the best part: it’s still not on!" 

On a different note he also said, "A tree fell on my neighbor’s car, but it wasn’t working anyways." 

Assistant principal Tim Guy, also had an experience to share. "I have two trees that have fallen from our neighbor’s property onto my property. One fell across the street and one fell on the driveway. The tree that fell on the street was cleaned up by nine o’clock, but the one on the driveway is resting on power lines and is still to be fixed." 

Principal Bob.Snee reminded everyone, "We’ve just used up two of our snow days."