Hurricane Isaias Makes Landfall in Florida as Category 2 Storm
- Cientos de miles de clientes perdieron power across the US Gulf Coast as Hurricane Isaías made landfall, according to data from tracking site PowerOutage.us.
- Isaías struck the Florida coast near Destin late Friday evening as a Category 2 hurricane before degrading to Category 1 as it pushed inland, the National Hurricane Center...
- Florida Governor Ron DeSantis declared a state of emergency across 27 counties and deployed approximately 5,000 National Guard troops for rescue and security operations, Clarín reported.
Cientos de miles de clientes perdieron power across the US Gulf Coast as Hurricane Isaías made landfall, according to data from tracking site PowerOutage.us. The storm’s impact dwarfed typical regional squalls, knocking out electricity for about 409,000 users in Florida and roughly 234,000 in Alabama late Friday night, while Infobae and Univision reported differing figures on earlier outages ranging from 460,000 to over 512,000 total accounts affected across the wider southeastern region. Over 668,000 clients remained without electricity in Alabama, Florida and Georgia at a late hour on Friday night, according to PowerOutage.us, after the cyclone struck the Florida Panhandle around 8:30 p.m local time.
Hurricane Isaías Makes Landfall in Florida
Isaías struck the Florida coast near Destin late Friday evening as a Category 2 hurricane before degrading to Category 1 as it pushed inland, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) reported. Univision noted that the storm packed maximum sustained winds of 169 km/h when it came ashore, while another source indicated winds reached up to 185 km/h before landfall and 105 miles per hour (169 kilometers per hour) at a later point. Jamie Rhome, deputy director of the United States National Hurricane Center (NHC), warned: Things are going to get really complicated in the next two hours.
Footage from Reuters captured torn roofs and damaged gas stations across the affected coastline, while Telemundo 51 confirmed that 47 flights—representing 65 percent of arrivals and 46 percent of departures—were canceled at Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport.
Emergency Declarations and Power Outages
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis declared a state of emergency across 27 counties and deployed approximately 5,000 National Guard troops for rescue and security operations, Clarín reported. PowerOutage.us figures detailed by Univision showed that Escambia County bore the heaviest brunt in Florida with 114,626 customers in the dark, followed by Okaloosa with 31,066 and Walton with 30,770 outages. Other counties facing significant disruptions included Santa Rosa with 24,160, Leon with 16,971, and Bay with 16,485, figures that correspond to dynamic records subject to change as utility companies update their reports.
Storm Surge and Inland Flood Warnings
The NHC warned of a potentially life-threatening storm surge reaching 1.8 to 2.7 meters in vulnerable areas like Pensacola Beach and the Gulf Islands National Seashore, with later updates from Infobae tracking remaining coastal surges between 0.6 and 1.2 meters. Telemundo 51 reported that the primary hazard shifted toward heavy inland rainfall capable of producing flash floods and tornadoes as the system advanced northward into Alabama and toward the Tennessee Valley. Forecasters projected total rainfall accumulations of 10 to 20 centimeters or higher through the weekend across a stretch reaching from southern Alabama into southwestern Georgia, according to Clarín.
Weekend Weather and Travel Disruptions
Infobae added that local authorities in both Florida and Alabama urged residents to stay off flooded roadways and handle cleanup tools such as chainsaws with extreme caution as emergency crews began clearing downed trees and power lines.