More than 800,000 customers were without power Saturday as communities across the US Gulf Coast began assessing the damage left by Hurricane Isaias, which brought destructive winds, widespread flooding and storm surge.
The Category 2 storm made landfall · at 8:30 p.m. near Destin, Florida, with top winds of 105 miles (169 kilometers) an hour and quickly degraded into a post-tropical cyclone, according to the US National Hurricane Center.
The storm’s winds downed power lines as it made its way onshore, knocking out power for about 840,000 residents and businesses in Florida, Alabama and Georgia, according to PowerOutage.com .
Oil output in the Gulf of Mexico plummeted as the storm approached the US coast and companies evacuated crews from platforms and drillers sailed rigs out of its path.
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Torrential rain and storm surge forecast to climb as high as 9 feet (2.7 meters) flooded roads in Florida and Alabama. Strong winds damaged roofs, downed trees and power lines and scattered debris across the region, according to the Associated Press and social media posts. Local transportation officials closed roads and urged motorists to avoid local roadways.
The remnants of Isaias, the first Atlantic hurricane to hit the US mainland in almost two years, are forecast to continue pummeling Florida, Alabama and Georgia on Saturday, authorities said. As much as 8 inches (20 centimeters) of rain are predicted across the region, with as much as 15 inches seen in some localized areas.
Tropical storm conditions will likely continue Saturday morning as the storm system tracks north across Alabama and into the Tennessee and Ohio valleys throughout the day and into Sunday, forecasters said. The storm system is expected to bring heavy rain and could spawn tornadoes as far north as the Carolinas.
The Atlantic hurricane season has been unusually calm this year as a strong El Niño tamps down storm formation in the region. An average season would have seen 11 named storms and five hurricanes by early October, data show.
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