People can really get charged up over Isabel  Kevin Cowherd  TO
SEE THE Isabel panic for myself, I went to Home Depot yesterday
because there is simply no better place to be with a hurricane
bearing down on you than a store the size of a NATO base that
offers 15 varieties of duct tape.  Even early in the morning,
the first faint whiffs of fear were in the air.  The flashlight
section had been just about wiped out - only a few forlorn-
looking lantern-type lights were left. A new supply of C and D
batteries was just about gone.  Corrugated drain pipe, tarp
covers, plastic sheeting, mop buckets, window-well covers, bags
of sand - all of it was flying off the shelves as Isabel
approached. The supply of sump pumps was low. Portable
generators had been sold out since Monday.  And the beauty of
the whole thing was: This was a Home Depot in Cockeysville, for
God's sake, where all we were going to get was a little wind and
rain.  I couldn't imagine what it was like at a hardware store
near the Outer Banks. They must h