Isaias, now post-tropical, leaves 2 dead and 868,000 without power

Forecasters warn of flooding, landslides and tornadoes as Isaias moves inland

Hurricane Isaias weakened to a post-tropical cyclone on Saturday, a day after it made landfall late Friday near Destin, Florida, as a Category 2 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 105 mph (169 km/h). Forecasters predicted the storm would dissipate on Sunday.

Authorities said two people died after trees fell on homes as the storm moved inland, one in Escambia County, Florida, and another in Birmingham, Alabama. More than 868,000 customers across Florida, Alabama and Georgia remained without power early Saturday, according to PowerOutage.us, as residents began the cleanup process.

The National Hurricane Center discontinued storm surge and tropical storm warnings associated with Isaias but said there would still likely be “considerable impacts” across much of southern Alabama, Florida’s panhandle and south-western Georgia. “Flash, urban and river flooding is possible across the region,” the center said in a Saturday-morning advisory. It warned of considerable potential for flash flooding and landslides across the southern Appalachians, and said a risk for tornadoes would persist through Saturday afternoon across parts of the eastern Florida panhandle, Georgia and the Carolinas.

Through Sunday, Isaias was expected to produce rainfall of 4–8 inches across southern Alabama, Florida’s panhandle and Big Bend regions, and south-west Georgia, with localized totals up to 15 inches possible, particularly within rain bands across the Florida panhandle and Big Bend. Across much of the rest of the south-east United States, forecasters expected 2–5 inches, with localized amounts up to 10 inches possible, especially across the southern Appalachians and coastal Carolinas.

Tim Mowry, who endured the storm at his home in Pensacola, Florida, told the Associated Press the winds were so intense they sounded like “a train whistle.” Mowry said he lost power on Friday afternoon but could rely on a generator, and that his son, whose home about 15 minutes away also lost power, tried to drive over but had to turn around because downed trees and power lines blocked the road. All things considered, Mowry said he was “really fortunate.”

Crestview, Florida, resident Ashley Weeks told the news station WEAR that a tree from her backyard fell on top of her house, damaging the roof near her daughter’s bedroom and turning the ceiling into piles of debris. “Just scary – everything, my whole life is in the house,” Weeks said. “We heard a loud … like a bomb went off in the house.”

Alabama Governor Kay Ivey warned of “possible spinoff tornadoes” and asked residents to “prepare for the worst.” “Right now, we are worried about strong winds, heavy rain and possible spinoff tornadoes in certain parts of the state,” Ivey said. “We often hear in emergency management: Hope for the best. Prepare for the worst. That is the approach we need with this particular storm system.”

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said in a Fox News interview Saturday morning that his administration had not received any reports of fatalities in the state, a result he attributed to likely heightened preparation and previous experience with other tropical storms and hurricanes. “We’re a peninsula in the middle of a tropical part of the world,” DeSantis said. “We’ve gotta deal with these things.”

Isaias was an atypically late-forming first Atlantic hurricane of the season, and it lashed the U.S. Gulf coast with heavy rain, fierce winds and life-threatening flooding. The stronger El Niño seemed to limit the number of hurricanes in the Atlantic for the year so far, but Isaias forming in October with maximum sustained winds of 105 mph marked a stark contrast from historical trends. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) predicted a quiet year at the season’s official start on 1 June, anticipating between three and six hurricanes — below the average of seven — and an August forecast cut the expected number to between two and six. Isaias is one of the two latest-forming first Atlantic hurricanes on record, tying a record set on 8 October 1905; the previous second-latest date was 11 September, in 2002 and 2013. None of the eight previous named storms of the 2026 Atlantic season intensified above tropical storm status.