Three storms batter North America as Hurricane Isaias makes Florida landfall

Hurricane Simon targets Puerto Vallarta; swells, high tide flood Newport Beach

Three storm systems battered North America this weekend as Hurricane Isaias made landfall on Florida’s western panhandle Friday evening after weakening slightly to a Category 2 hurricane with 110 mph (175 kph) winds, the National Hurricane Center reported. The two other systems hit Mexico and Southern California in the El Niño-fueled warm waters of the Pacific Ocean.

Ahead of the Isaias landfall, Florida, Alabama, and Georgia each declared states of emergency. Both Florida and Alabama instituted mandatory evacuations due to the storm. In Florida, those evacuations include coastal communities directly in the storm’s path. Florida Senator Rick Scott urged residents in designated areas to evacuate, warning in a social media post: “DO NOT WAIT! Get out NOW!” Alabama Governor Kay Ivey issued a mandatory evacuation order for all non-residents, tourists, and visitors in key counties likely to be heavily affected by the storm.

Isaias is the first hurricane to form in the Atlantic this season and the first to form that late in the year in more than 30 years, in a season that has been delayed by El Niño conditions in the Pacific. The storm is likely to bring “life-threatening storm surge” to the U.S. Gulf Coast, the National Hurricane Center warned.

After hitting Florida, the center of Isaias was forecast to move across Alabama and into the Tennessee Valley on Saturday and Sunday, the National Weather Service said late on Friday. As of Friday evening, hurricane-force winds extended outward up to 35 miles (55 km) from Isaias’s center, and tropical storm-force winds reached as far as 205 miles (335 km). There is also the potential for accompanying tornadoes, Melissa Watson, a Florida-based meteorologist at the National Weather Service, told the BBC.

For those who have not evacuated, “the main thing will be having multiple ways to receive warnings” about tornadoes and storm surges, Watson said. “If you are near the coast, being able to move to higher ground,” is also essential in the event of storm surges, she said. “We want people to be safe, so don’t go out there trying to look for damage … to post on social media,” she added. “We want people to remain inside and safe while the hurricane is moving through.”

Even before the storm made landfall, hundreds of thousands were without power across the Southeast. More than 350,000 were in the dark in Florida and another 170,000 in Alabama saw outages, according to PowerOutage.us. In Georgia, where Isaias’s winds were expected at reduced intensity, about 8,000 customers were already without power.

People on the coast of the Florida panhandle were told to seek immediate shelter under an “Extreme Wind Warning.” Some Florida officials ordered residents to “Get out NOW!” — urging compliance with evacuation orders.

Not everyone left. John Guoth, a resident of Navarre, Florida, told the BBC that he and his wife planned to remain in their home despite the rest of his street having already evacuated. “It’s a hurricane, we get them all the time… we kind of knew that when we moved here,” he said. “Pretty much everything that can fly and will fly is battened down, and everything that cannot fly is really, really secured,” he said. Guoth said he put his ducks and chickens in the bathroom and weighed down his boats and trailers so “nothing flips over.”

A few households have remained in the area, described as “long-term locals” who are “going to protect our homes.” Pensacola resident Brandin Ruth told the BBC that businesses in the city had been turning off gas, icing down product, and trying to get team members home. People in the city have “seen bad storms before” but are “bunkering up,” he said, adding: “You don’t want to underestimate a storm like this.”

One indicator of a storm’s severity to communities in the southern U.S. is whether the stalwart restaurant chain Waffle House would close its doors. On Friday, it did. A Waffle House spokesperson confirmed to the BBC that the chain had already closed a number of locations in the hurricane’s path and “will continue monitoring conditions.”

President Donald Trump said he would no longer attend a major American football college game in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, because of the hurricane, shifting his plans to attend a rally in Tennessee instead.

The two Pacific storm systems affecting North America this weekend were Hurricane Simon and Tropical Storm Rachel. Simon bore down on the Pacific coast of Mexico as a Category 1 hurricane, according to Reuters, and was set to pick up speed and become Category 4 by Saturday before making landfall near Puerto Vallarta on Sunday. Further north, Rachel — a downgraded hurricane — headed toward landfall around the U.S.-Mexico border along the Pacific, expected to reach the coast late on Saturday.

The impact of Rachel was already being felt in Southern California due to high tides. Video footage and photos showed several streets under water in Newport Beach, California, through a combination of the tropical storm swells at sea and high tide. Posting on its account on X, the City of Newport Beach advised people to “avoid the Balboa Peninsula due to street flooding caused by recent storm conditions and elevated tides” and urged residents not to drive through flooded streets. Bulldozers have been shoring up the beach to try and prevent further flooding.