Updated October 10, 2026 at 10:08 AM EDT
Nearly 900,000 power customers are without power in Florida, Alabama and Georgia on Saturday, after Hurricane Isaias plowed into the northern Gulf Coast Friday night, according to the monitoring site PowerOutage.us.
Isaias made landfall Friday night near Destin, Fla., as a Category 2 hurricane, packing 105 mph winds. It brought a storm surge of some 5 feet -- mercifully short of the 6 to 9 feet forecasters had said was possible if Isaias arrived at peak high tide. Landfall took place around 8:30 p.m. local time, according to the National Hurricane Center, roughly two hours before high tide in Destin.
Isaias was downgraded to a post-tropical storm hours after making landfall. But threats of widespread flash floods and wind damage remain. Rainfall totals over the weekend could reach 4 to 8 inches in parts of Alabama, Florida and Georgia, with up to 15 inches possible in some areas.
Isaias is the first hurricane of the Atlantic season, which has until now been dampened by a strong El Nino, a naturally occurring climate pattern. It is the first hurricane since 2024 to hit the U.S.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Friday evening warned residents in the hurricane's path and beyond to prepare for heavy rain and potential tornadoes.
"Assume you're going to lose power," he said at a news conference.
The governor earlier stressed that while well-designed buildings can withstand high winds, floodwaters present a serious threat to lives and property.
"We always say, you know, you hide from the wind, but you run from the water," DeSantis told reporters Friday morning. "When the water's rising and things are happening, it's a very, very difficult conundrum, and you do not want to be caught in that."
A hurricane warning had extended along the Gulf Coast from Ocean Springs, Miss., eastward to the area around Mexico Beach in Florida.
Flash floods are a certainty, according to Jared Perdue, the executive director of Florida's Division of Emergency Management. "The Panhandle is already saturated from rainfall," he said at Friday morning's press conference alongside DeSantis. "This storm will bring heavy amounts of rain … there will be flash flooding, there will be localized flooding."
DeSantis said that some 16,000 utility workers were standing by to help restore electricity service. The Florida National Guard readied approximately 5,000 personnel available to help the recovery effort, he said.
In the Florida Panhandle, many schools and commercial airports were shut down, and mandatory or voluntary evacuation orders were in effect for parts of seven counties as of Friday morning. In Alabama, Gov. Kay Ivey declared a state of emergency for 40 counties; DeSantis did the same for 25 counties.
It has been more than 100 years since the Atlantic got its first hurricane of the season this late, as a "Super El Niño" weather pattern has disrupted the ability of cyclones to form. But the pattern has done less to affect storm formation in the Gulf, where very warm water has served as fuel for storms like Isaias.
Warm ocean water helps tropical storms build strength and draw in moisture, adding to their potential rainfall. Warmer sea surface temperatures are also linked to human-caused climate change, a critical factor in making hurricanes larger and more likely to bring intense winds and rainfall when they make landfall.
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