CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Powerful Hurricane Isabel plowed westward Saturday, and some forecasters said the storm may hit the Outer Banks or the Virginia-Maryland area later this week.

But meteorologists say it will be another day or two before they are willing to predict where – or if – the storm will strike.

They advised residents from Georgia to Maine to keep track of the hurricane’s path.

“It’s not definite, but things are looking more ominous for the East Coast,” said Eric Blake, a meteorologist at the National Hurricane Center.

After weakening slightly Saturday morning, Isabel was reclassified in the afternoon as a Category 5 storm, the strongest rating in the system used by the National Hurricane Center. A reconnaissance flight into the storm, centered north of Puerto Rico, found top sustained winds of 160 mph.

“I will be very surprised if this storm curves back out to sea,” said hurricane specialist Phil Klotzback of Colorado State University, saying upper-air steering currents will guide the storm to the U.S. mainland. “This likely will hit land somewhere on the East Coast.”

But where on the East Coast?

The computer models used by forecasters to predict hurricane movement all forecast Isabel to move west-northwest for another day before turning northwest and remaining north of the Bahamas.

After that, the forecasts differ, showing landfall anywhere from Wilmington to New England. But because hurricane computer forecasts often change, meteorologists said residents of South Carolina and Georgia are not in the clear yet.

The official National Hurricane Center forecast shows the storm on a track toward the northern Outer Banks or Virginia’s Tidewater area.

At Myers Park Hardware on Providence Road in Charlotte, the shelves showed evidence of at least a few vigilant shoppers: The rack of batteries had been picked clean, several rolls of duct tape had been plucked from aisle No.12 and one remaining battery-powered lamp sat on a shelf.

Manager Tom Robinson said the store tripled its supply of essential items in anticipation of Isabel. The Myers Park neighborhood was hard hit by last year’s ice storm when large, old trees crashed onto power lines, cutting electricity.

But several customers said they weren’t worried. They said they were waiting until the storm came closer to decide whether to stock up on emergency supplies. But when Art Williams of Charlotte learned the storm could hit North Carolina by late this week, he squinted and shook his head.

“Oh, no,” he said, recalling the 10 days he was without power during the ice storm. “I won’t go through that again. I’ll definitely get a generator if it’s coming.”

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(Knight Ridder Newspapers correspondent Nichole Monroe Bell contributed to this report.)

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(c) 2003, The Charlotte Observer (Charlotte, N.C.).

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GRAPHIC (from KRT Graphics, 202-383-6064): ISABEL

AP-NY-09-13-03 2104EDT

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