Hurricane Isaias kills four and cuts power to 860,000

Hurricane Isaias killed four people and left about 860,000 without power after making landfall near Destin, Florida, on Friday evening as a category 2 hurricane. Two deaths occurred in Escambia County, Florida, and two in Alabama as the storm moved inland. The storm brought high winds, rain, flooding and downed trees across the Florida Panhandle and neighbouring states.upi.com+1

The deaths show how the storm's mechanism worked: trees, not wind-driven structural collapse, did most of the damage. One person in Escambia County died when a tree fell on his home, another died in a garage with a running generator, and a tree killed a person in a house in Birmingham, Alabama. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said structures handled the storm well, but falling trees proved fatal.theguardian.com

Why the storm killed and cut power

DeSantis described the generator death as a warning. "One individual in Escambia County had a tree fall on his home and tragically was killed. And another one, unfortunately, died inside of his garage. And when they went to find them, the generator was running," DeSantis said. He added: "Don't run any generators inside your home, it can be very, very hazardous." Four members of the family of the person found in the garage were taken to hospital with carbon monoxide poisoning, the Escambia sheriff's office said.

Power outages ran from about 860,000 on Saturday morning to more than 679,000 across Florida, Alabama and Georgia that afternoon, according to PowerOutage.us, down from more than 900,000 earlier on Saturday. In Florida, 438,137 customers were without power; in Alabama, 294,662; and in Georgia, 111,105, the tracking firm reported. A separate Pacific storm, Rachel, left 7,000 people without power in California.

The outage figures came from PowerOutage.us, an electricity monitoring service cited by multiple reports. A midday Saturday breakdown showed about 420,000 customers without power in Florida, 190,000 in Alabama, 43,000 in Georgia and 17,000 in Mississippi. In Santa Rosa County, Florida, between Pensacola and Destin, more than 80% of customers lost power and wind gusts rose to more than 100 mph on Friday night.

Where the outage numbers came from

Damage assessment and restoration began at first light on Saturday. Thirty teams from the Florida Department of Transportation were assessing damage in the Panhandle, and about 16,000 utility linemen had prepared to respond, DeSantis said. "At first light, thousands of linemen and utility crews have convoyed from Sandestin and along the I-10 corridor to get to work, focusing on outages in the hardest hit communities," he said.

Roads and airports remained disrupted. Santa Rosa County emergency management said the majority of county roads were "impassable due to down trees and/or power lines." In Alabama, all Houston County roads were closed until further notice, the state's emergency management agency posted. Northwest Florida Beaches Airport reopened to commercial service, while the Destin, Fort Walton Beach and Pensacola airports stayed closed.

Isaias was the first hurricane of the 2026 Atlantic season and an atypically late-forming first hurricane. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration had predicted a quiet season with three to six hurricanes, below the average of seven. Wind shear in the Atlantic had kept hurricanes at bay, but low wind shear in the Gulf helped Isaias form, forecasters said.abcnews.com

As Isaias weakened to a post-tropical cyclone on Saturday, the National Hurricane Center warned of continued flooding and tornado risks. Flash, urban and river flooding was possible across southern Alabama, the Florida Panhandle and south-western Georgia, with considerable potential for flash flooding and landslides across the southern Appalachians. A tornado risk persisted through Saturday afternoon across the eastern Panhandle, Georgia and the Carolinas.

Rainfall through Sunday was forecast at 4 to 8 inches across southern Alabama, the Florida Panhandle, the Big Bend region and south-west Georgia, with localized totals up to 15 inches. The coastal Carolinas were expected to receive 2 to 5 inches, with localized totals up to 10 inches. Florida transportation secretary Jared W Perdue warned residents not to drive through standing water on roads.

Offshore, oil and gas production was restarting. Shell began redeploying personnel to its Mars, Olympus, Ursa, Vito and Appomattox assets in the Gulf, and Chevron was advancing efforts to restore full production. Even so, about 69% of oil output and 57% of natural gas production in the US Gulf of Mexico remained shut on Saturday, the Marine Minerals Administration said, with 113 production platforms evacuated.

Isaias was expected to dissipate on Sunday, Alabama Governor Kay Ivey said, adding that the storm "cannot clear fast enough." Rivers were expected to crest in the coming days, raising new flood risk, DeSantis said. Hurricane Milton's strike on Florida in October 2024 was the last hurricane to hit the mainland United States before Isaias.