By Mark Chediak and Julia Amann | Updated on Oct 10, 2026 at 03:33 AM
Hurricane Isaias barreled into the Florida Panhandle Friday night with damaging winds and a storm surge that threatened to inundate beachfront communities.
The Category 2 storm made landfall at 8:30 p.m. local time near Destin, Florida, with top winds of 105 miles (169 kilometers) an hour, the US National Hurricane Center said. It’s the first Atlantic hurricane to strike the US mainland in nearly two years in an usually quiet stretch.
The storm’s gusty winds downed power lines along the Florida panhandle and southern Alabama, leaving nearly 500,000 residents and businesses without electricity, according to PowerOutage.com . A storm surge of as much as 9 feet (2.7 meters) was forecast for the coastline from the Alabama-Florida boarder to Grayton Beach, Florida.
Read More: Tracking Hurricane Isaias’ Latest Path
“The storm is here,” Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said at a briefing after Isaias washed ashore. “Buckle down at this point.”
The state’s emergency responders and utility crews were mobilized to respond to the storm’s impacts, DeSantis said. The governor declared a state of emergency in 27 counties.
President Donald Trump said he was shelving his plans to attend Saturday’s football game between the University of Georgia and the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa to avoid disrupting the emergency response.
This Atlantic hurricane season has lagged far behind the usual pace as a strong El Niño suppresses storm activity across the basin. By early October, an average season has seen 11 named storms, including five hurricanes.
Read More: Hurricane Isaias Shuts Almost Three-Quarters of Gulf Oil Output ·
Isaias’ path through the US Gulf of Mexico jeopardized key oil and gas infrastructure and refineries at a precarious time for energy markets already strained by wars in Iran and Russia. Energy companies had shut down more than two-thirds of oil production and nearly 60% of natural gas output as the storm grew rapidly in intensity.
After coming ashore, Isaias is forecast to race across Alabama and into the Tennessee and Ohio valleys, bringing as much as 8 to 12 inches of rain, said Tyler Roys, a meteorologist with commercial forecaster AccuWeather Inc.
“Flash, urban, and river flooding is possible across the region, with considerable impacts likely across much of southern Alabama and the Florida Panhandle into southwestern Georgia,” the National Hurricane Center said. “Considerable flash flooding and landslides are also possible across the Southern Appalachians.”