At least four people were reported dead Saturday in the middle of Isaias after it made landfall Friday evening on the Florida panhandle as a Category 2 hurricane, according to authorities.
The storm also downed trees, knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of people and flooded highways – but as Saturday evening approached, the region was reopening.
Two of the deaths reported during Isaias occurred in Escambia County, Florida, and two others were reported in Alabama as the storm moved inland, local authorities said. Of those deaths, one occurred in Escambia and Birmingham, Alabama, when trees fell on homes.
Another person whose death is linked to Isaias was found in a closed garage with a generator running in Escambia County. Four members of that person’s family were taken to the hospital following carbon monoxide poisoning, the Escambia Sheriff’s Office said.
“Do not run any generator inside your home, it can be very, very dangerous,” Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said at a news conference.
In Alabama, Gov. Kay Ivey said Isaias — which is expected to dissipate Sunday — “can’t dissipate fast enough.”
Meanwhile, even though it had weakened to a post-tropical cyclone on Saturday, Isaias still posed threats of flooding and tornadoes as it moved inland, forecasters and officials warned.
“Keep in mind that there may still be some flooding from rising rivers,” Florida State Department of Transportation Secretary Jared W Perdue said at a news conference. “I’m just going to remind you all: please, if there is standing water or flowing water at the top of a road, do not cross it.
“It doesn’t have to be that deep, and it can take your car, it can take a human being, it can become very dangerous very quickly.”
More than 679,000 customers were without power Saturday afternoon in Florida, Alabama and Georgia as those in the storm’s path began the cleanup process, according to PowerOutage.us. Although still high, the number of outages is down from the more than 900,000 recorded on Saturday.
Storm surge and tropical storm warnings associated with Isaias had by then been discontinued, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) warned that there were still likely to be “significant impacts” associated with Isaias across much of southern Alabama, the Florida Panhandle, and southwest Georgia.
“Flash, urban, and riverine flooding is possible throughout the region,” the NHC said in an advisory issued Saturday morning, adding that there was considerable potential for flash flooding and landslides in the southern Appalachian Mountains. “A risk of tornadoes will persist…until (Saturday) afternoon in parts of the eastern Florida Panhandle, Georgia and the Carolinas. »
Isaias through Sunday is expected to produce precipitation amounts of 4 to 8 inches across southern Alabama, the Florida Panhandle and Big Bend areas, and southwest Georgia. Localized totals of up to 15 inches are possible, especially in rain bands across the Florida Panhandle and Big Bend.
Across much of the rest of the Southeastern United States, precipitation amounts of 2 to 5 inches are expected, and higher localized amounts of up to 10 inches are possible, particularly in the southern Appalachians and coastal Carolinas.
Isaias made landfall near Destin, Florida, on Friday as a powerful Category 2 hurricane. It is the first Atlantic hurricane of the season, a late and atypical formation, which hit the U.S. Gulf Coast with heavy rain, strong winds and life-threatening flooding.
Hurricane Milton’s strike on Florida in October 2024 was the last time a hurricane struck the continental United States before Isaias.
The hurricane’s maximum sustained winds were 105 mph (169 km/h). It was intense enough to sound like “a train whistle,” Tim Mowry told The Associated Press after enduring the storm at his home in Pensacola, Florida.
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Mowry described losing power Friday afternoon, but said he could rely on a generator. He said his son tried to drive home after a power outage at his home, about 15 minutes away, but had to turn around because downed trees and power lines blocked the road.
All things considered, Mowry said he was “really lucky” in terms of how he fared during Isaias.
Ashley Weeks, a resident of Crestview, Florida, told news channel WEAR that a tree from her yard fell on the roof of her home, damaging the roof near her daughter’s bedroom and turning the ceiling into a pile of debris.
It was “just scary — everything, my whole life is in the house,” Weeks said. “We heard a loud noise…like a bomb had gone off in the house. It was so loud. And I got up and I (saw) the tree through the roof, and it was…scary.”
While the stronger El Niño appeared to limit the number of Atlantic hurricanes for the year so far, the formation of Isaias in October with maximum sustained winds of 170 km/ha marked a stark contrast to historical trends.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) predicted a quiet year in terms of hurricanes at the start of a season that officially begins each year on June 1. Noaa predicted between three and six hurricanes, well below the average of seven. An August forecast from Noaa reduced the expected number to between two and six.
Isais is one of the last two Atlantic hurricanes to form, tying a record set on October 8, 1905. Otherwise, the penultimate date for the first Atlantic hurricane was September 11 – in 2002 and 2013.
None of the eight previously named storms of the 2026 Atlantic season intensified beyond tropical storm status.
The Associated Press contributed to this report
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