At least four people lost their lives and hundreds of thousands experienced power outages as Hurricane Isaias moved inland after making landfall in the Florida Panhandle late Friday night. The storm, which struck as a Category 2 hurricane, caused significant damage across Florida and Alabama before weakening into a post-tropical cyclone.
Two fatalities occurred when trees fell on homes in Escambia County, Florida, which includes Pensacola, and in Birmingham, Alabama, officials reported. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis confirmed that a man was found dead in his garage with a generator running, suggesting carbon monoxide poisoning as a possible cause. Another individual died in southeast Alabama after a crash in Barbour County, where trees had fallen onto a roadway, according to Josh Johnson, spokesman for the Alabama Emergency Management Agency.
The hurricane, which made landfall near Destin, Florida, with sustained winds exceeding 100 miles per hour, left widespread damage in its wake. Residents in the region reported downed trees, damaged roofs, and torn siding on homes. Signs from businesses including restaurants and mini-golf courses were toppled, and some recreational vehicles were displaced. Roads became impassable in several areas due to fallen trees and downed power lines.
Despite the destruction, the overall impact was less severe than initially feared, with coastal flooding falling short of worst-case projections. Some residents expressed relief that the storm’s toll was not more catastrophic. David Gates, 60, who was out walking in Fort Walton Beach on Saturday morning, said, “We got away with murder.”
Isaias continued northeastward through Alabama, Tennessee, and Kentucky on Saturday, dropping heavy rain and prompting flash flood warnings in the Carolinas. The system was expected to reach the Northeast by Sunday and Monday. Nearly 900,000 power customers across Florida, Alabama, and Georgia experienced outages, although approximately 200,000 had power restored by late Saturday, according to PowerOutage.us.
Florida officials reported no missing persons and no requests for search and rescue deployments as of Saturday, an indication that the situation was stabilizing. Governor DeSantis described this as “an optimistic sign” during a news briefing.
The occurrence of Hurricane Isaias marked the first hurricane to strike the U.S. mainland in two years, amid an unusually quiet Atlantic hurricane season. Meteorologists attribute the reduced storm activity to the El Niño weather pattern, which tends to suppress Atlantic hurricanes while enhancing storm formation in the Eastern Pacific.
Meanwhile, two other systems, Hurricane Simon and Tropical Storm Rachel, were advancing toward Mexico and the American Southwest, bringing concerns of flooding but also potential relief from an ongoing heat wave in Southern California.
Local residents shared their experiences in the aftermath of the storm. In Mary Esther, Florida, Maria Hernandez, 75, and her son Louis, 59, took refuge in their home built in 1968. Though a transformer exploded nearby and a tree fell close by, the house remained intact. “It’s gone through a lot of hurricanes,” Maria Hernandez said. Her son noted plans to visit the beach to collect seashells, a practice he associates with post-hurricane conditions.