RICHMOND, VA. ? Darrell Robinson thought he got hit hard when Hurricane Isabel toppled huge pines and oaks in his back yard, including one that crashed onto his roof. Then a tornado toppled the trees in his front yard five days later.

Powerless after both the hurricane and the tornado and facing at least another week in the dark, Robinson and his family have come to expect the hard times and are learning to cope with them, as are thousands of other residents from North Carolina to Maryland.

“Where’s the help? That’s what we’re looking for,” Robinson said as he, his wife, Barbara Wisniewski-Robinson, both 37, and their 6-year-old daughter, Kendra, huddled around the dining room table in their darkened brick home.

Though it had weakened significantly and was barely at hurricane strength by the time it bulled through North Carolina and into Virginia’s interior, Isabel will be Virginia’s most expensive natural disaster, officials say.

The storm killed 40 people nationally and left 6 million power customers without service as far north as New York.

In Engelhard, N.C., a tiny fishing village on Pamlico Sound, Edna and Frank Summerlin were coming to grips with the damage at their marina.

Isabel’s powerful surge lifted a 25-foot fishing boat that was tethered to the dock and drove it into the Summerlins’ cottage. It flooded their Big Trout Cafe and dozens of private trailers, and it leveled every tree on the marina’s grounds except for two tall pines. Frank cut those down himself.

“We had just recovered from the impact of (Hurricane) Floyd and this happens,” Frank said as tears welled in his eyes. “I just got the place looking real good.”

In North Carolina, about 7,800 customers remained without power Saturday, nine days after the storm pummeled the region. Virginia’s dominant utility, Dominion Virginia Power, had put 87 percent of the record 1.8 million customers who lost power back online by Saturday.

Preston Jenkins, owner of the marina on Gwynn's Island, puts a freezer that was ruined by Hurricane Isabel into a trash bin in Mathew County, Va. Countless residents along the East Coast spent the weekend sorting through debris left in Hurricane Isabel's wake.