And over 100,000 residents on the east coast have been urged to flee their coastal homes and head inland as Hurricane Isabel approaches. North Carolina and Virginia have declared a state of emergency in advance. Washington D.C. has been placed on hurricane watch. Meanwhile concern is growing that the large deployment of national guard members overseas in Iraq has left the states with depleted forces to help during a local emergency. In South Carolina, the military estimates one fifth of the state’s national guard is overseas. In addition a military official said that the guard’s best dump trucks, backhoes and other heavy equipment were not in South Carolina but in Iraq.