Hurricane Isaias leaves 4 dead, 500,000 without power across southern US

Hurricane Simon strengthens to category 4 as Rachel heads for Southern California

Hurricane Isaias left four people dead and hundreds of thousands without power across several states after making landfall in Florida late Friday with maximum sustained winds of 105 mph (168 km/h). Officials reported two deaths each in Alabama and Florida, and the outage tracker PowerOutage estimated 500,000 people were without power as of Saturday evening. The storm was downgraded to a post-tropical cyclone after landfall and was expected to continue weakening as it traveled toward the north-east.

In Florida’s Escambia County, Sheriff Chip Simmons reported two deaths related to the storm. A woman died when a tree fell on her house, and a man died of carbon monoxide poisoning after running a generator in a garage that was not properly ventilated, Simmons said. Four other people who had been in the same house were taken to hospital.

Joey Williams told NewsNation that his wife died in the storm. The couple had gone outside to take pictures of the damage, but when they went back inside, a tree fell through the roof and trapped them. “I was able to squeeze out. My wife didn’t make it,” Williams told the outlet.

The storm felled trees and ripped the roofs off buildings, including an apartment complex in Milton, Florida, where the roof was blown off. The canopy of a petrol station collapsed in Gulf Breeze. Officials rescued people whose vehicles became submerged by floodwaters, and the Florida National Guard posted images of a truck stuck in a flood ditch, saying soldiers “stopped, swam to the vehicle and pulled its occupants to safety.”

Governor Ron DeSantis said flooding was a continued risk and warned of a “very hazardous situation.”

In neighboring Alabama, Governor Kay Ivey said in a post on X: “Unfortunately, we have also learned that two Alabamians have lost their lives.” She gave no further details on the circumstances of the deaths. She said officials were concerned about “spinoff tornadoes” from the strong winds and heavy rain. “As we approach the weekend and any travel plans, make sure you have reliable information as conditions develop,” she said. A sheriff in the state was injured when a tree fell on him as he responded to a car crash.

Ahead of the storm’s arrival, Alabama, Florida and Georgia declared states of emergency, and both Florida and Alabama issued mandatory evacuation orders to thousands of people.

In Charleston, South Carolina, officials asked people to stay home Saturday night as high tide was expected to reach 7.5 feet (2.3 m). “After dark, floodwater is much harder to see and it’s impossible to judge how deep it is from behind the wheel,” the city said.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration warned that the Carolinas and Georgia could see floods from up to 10 inches (25 cm) of rainfall as Isaias moved toward the north-east.

In the Pacific, Hurricane Simon strengthened to category four and bore down on Mexico’s Pacific coast, with landfall expected overnight. Tropical Storm Rachel, also in the Pacific, was expected to hit southern California later on Saturday. Isaias was the first hurricane of an Atlantic season that has been largely delayed by El Niño conditions in the Pacific.